The Few Sacrifice for the Many (WIL 2)

This year, our kitchen faucet has been serviced 4 times (as of tonight at 5pm). The culprits are many - 50 year old pipes, newer faucets that don't filter the water coming from the street, and the newest: underground drilling shaking loose deposits into the water mains.

The Brightwater Wastewater Treatment Plant is a 10 year old sore spot. This new plant residing in Snohomish County (barely) will serve King County's burgeoning population. But, the digging that rattles my house was not in the project plan. Three-hundred feet below our Bothell house is a tunnel from the plant in Woodinville traveling straight west to Edmonds and into Puget Sound. New delays, due to broken boring machines and the presence of unexpected groundwater, put the tunnel 2 years behind schedule...and counting.

Thus, our entire neighborhood - perhaps city - is clogging with the extra gunk of agitation. The few - City of Bothell, population 33,240 (2009, 17,260 in King County) is sacrificing: water pressure, everyday conveniences, extra time spent at the sink waiting for enough water to rinse dishes, to fill a bottle, to wash hands. The water dribbles into my filter pitcher and makes so little noise that I forget it's on - until it's run over and I notice it the next time I'm in the kitchen. All these little sacrifices for the many - King County population 1,826,732 (2009).

My sacrifices are minute compared to most examples. I am required to make these sacrifices because I have no power to change the circumstances - I cannot make groundwater evaporate, finish the digging, fix complicated machines. Like it or not, our freedom and autonomy is imposed upon all the time. I have to swallow hard and modify my life and habits to accommodate the needs of strangers moving into the area.

I could resent it, but that is a waste of energy. Life is full of sacrifices, big and small, personal and collective. The Greater Good is an altruistic ideal we all hold closely. Our innate sense of justice, flawed as it can be, aches for Good to prevail. 

Jesus sacrificed: his time (Luke 4:40), rest (Luke 4:42, 9:10-11), his freedom and right to life (Matthew 26:39, 42). He recognized that his life was not his own (John 6:57) and he relinquished his grip on his own will, living with open hands, culminating in his sacrificial death on the cross.

The few sacrifice for the many - Jesus sacrificed for All. He calls each of us to follow him, to live our lives with open hands, to receive his patience, to sacrifice big and small things, to see his glory increase. Suddenly, my plumbing problems seem so insignificant.