The effects of corrosion

I'm in the process of selling a rental property. Last week a couple gave us a contract on it, which is great news to us. As expected they hired an inspector to look the place over with a fine tooth comb for any issues that need attention.

He found a few things - most were minor and easily repaired without having to hire a pro. But one could have been troublesome. Actually it was two - both exterior GFI outlets weren't working.

I wondered if the outlets had ever been used. Probably not. And I wondered if somehow they had never been properly wired. Were they even connected to the panel box? There wasn't anything labeled in there saying "exterior GFI". But surely these outlets were working when the condo was built 5 years ago or it shouldn't have passed inspection. Now there's an assumption.

I'm no electrician. Electricity scares me. And honestly, I know enough to be dangerous (to myself)! But before I hired one to check it out I'd do the obvious. Hopefully it was something simple.

The test/reset buttons weren't working on either outlet. So I pulled one outlet out and saw what could be the problem. Rust. The scourge of the Outer Banks. The screws that connect the wiring to the outlets were rusted on one of the outlets. Five years of salt had rendered the outlets powerless.

These are outdoor outlets. And although they have a cover and a seal, our proximity to the ocean (about a half mile away) meant exposure to salt. It's a given here. Salt spray from the ocean and electrical connections aren't a good mix. In fact, it's a major cause of fires along the ocean front. So off I went to Home Depot to pick up a couple new outlets.

One of the old ones had noticable rust so I clipped off the ends of the wires and trimmed them back to connect with clean copper. And once I got the new outlets in, guess what? Everything works fine. The problem wasn't the source of the power. The wiring from the panel box to the outlets was even through a GFI circuit breaker. The problem was the corrosion preventing the power from connecting with the outlets.

In spiritual terms corrosion is the result of sin in our lives. It doesn't have to be a deliberate separation from God. Usually it's the accumulation of trudging through life. The "salt" finds its way into our lives. And when that happens we lose "contact".

David the psalmist wrote that if we regard sin (corrosion) in our hearts we lose contact with God. It blocks our communication with Him. It's not that He's shut off the power. It just can't do its work in our lives because of the sin. And sin separates us from God.

Fortunately for us, it's an easy fix. Faith in Christ gives us the privilege of confession to God, and based on Jesus' shed blood on the cross, that confession renews the contact, removing the corrosion. It is an amazing thing. All it costs me is the admission to God that I've been wrong. Of course it's not just saying words, "I'm sorry". God can see through words. He's looking at heart change. Am I ready to throw the old, corroded life away and allow Him to replace it with something new and clean?

But the wind keeps blowing the salt. Five years is too long between renewal. For me 5 days is way too long. How about you?