The guy at the sink did every move imaginable - the standard-palm-slow-push, the blackjack-dealer-hand-flip, the peanut-butter-finger-spread, the three-stooges-hand-up-and-down, and the catch-a-fly-clap - all to no success.
And he was getting visibly frustrated that he slid down to the sink net to me, hopeful that faucet would produce the water needed to wash off his soapy hands. After he apologized for violating the unspoken rule in men’s restrooms (known in the south as the “Porcelain gap”), he then said something I will never forget. “I hate having to beg for water.”
No wonder Christianity is a tough sell to the world.
Christianity teaches about the need to let go of control, the value of humility, and how we are not self-reliant. I am aware that automatic faucets are not the greatest things in the world, but I am saying that there is something for each of us to experience being a beggar. For we are each just that, beggars for mercy and grace. The Good News is that God is the source and giver of mercy and grace.
The tough part is that when we receive mercy and grace it feels like we did not do anything to earn it or that we deserve it. It is almost as though we were beggars who received that which was given by another.
Those water faucets (and paper towel dispensers while we are at it) are opportunities for those of us who have to practice what it is like to be in need. What it feels like to beg for something and have to rely on someone/something else for help.
And if we are going to get frustrated when that water does not come out right when we ask for it, perhaps we can consider our fellow sister or brother in need who is asking and we are just as difficult as the faucet in that bathroom that refused to share the water.