After two days of watching my enthusiastic relatives work to clear my basement pipes, I’m sad to say they remain clogged. Things other than pipes, however, have been unclogging.

It began as blog readers shared their plumbing adventures with me and each other. Nancy wrote, “We had rocking toilets, collapsing sewer pipes, root-clogged drainage pipes, and so much more. One time our shower water was not going down, so David took the entire drain apart. I went upstairs and looked at the ‘air hole’ under the faucet, which was full of hair. I pulled the hair out, and David, who was downstairs looking up, got a face full of water.”

But Nancy also wrote about clogs of a different sort, the things that clog relationships and inhibit the important back-and-forth flow of communication between two people: “God used our house issues to teach David and me how to communicate without sharp words and with lots of love. Just like frustration levels soar with blocked pipes, so other emotions can sneak in and [clog our relationship], leading to spilled words that don’t belong in a marriage.”

She described how sin between two people (or between one person and God) is hidden from view when it begins, and then unforgiven sin is the start of big-time clogs in the relationships. The Bible says we’re to be “quick to hear,” and if someone can’t hear what God or each other is saying because sin is clogging the way, relationships dry up in a hurry. The reverse is true, too. Where would we be without the ability to pour out our troubles to God?

Yesterday my sister mentioned a TV ad from long ago in which a clear acrylic drain trap under the sink was filled with gunk. When the drain-clearing product being advertised was poured into the acrylic pipe, we watched in amazement as the clog rushed away like a mini-roller coaster on a track, allowing clean water to flow freely through the pipe.

That’s exactly how it is when we keep current in our communication with God and each other. As soon as the slightest bit of goo accumulates in the lines between us, we should quickly route it out before it gets big enough to hinder the flow. If the talking-listening paths become as badly clogged as my basement pipes are, restoring the back-and-forth of open communication might take days or even weeks.

It may not happen at all without painful excavating, followed by major reconstruction…. which is exactly where I fear my basement pipe-project is going.

I have an ace-in-the-hole, though: Nancy.

If I become feeble in whatever plumbing process lies ahead of me, I can always email her voice of experience, and I know she’ll “hear me clearly.”

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Ephesians 4:29)