Stupid Things I've Done - A Prophetic Word

I know this will be hard for some of you to believe, but I've done some stupid things in my life. Allow me to share one of those things with you.
A while ago our bathtub faucet needed fixing. Being the frugal (all right, cheap) person I am I decided to fix it myself. I searched the web for the problem I was having (it was hard to pull open and push closed) and found instructions. Step one of course is to turn off the water. The water valves under the sink do not turn off the water for the tub, so I called my association to ask where the turn off valve was. They told me it was in the front of the building and would turn the water off for all the units, not just mine. I would have to get the city to come and turn it off and I would also have to notify my neighbors of when and for how long the water would be off. Since it was 8 PM I realized that it was not going to get done that night. So, I decided to just look at the faucet to see if there was anything I could do without turning the water off. In my perusal of the web I had found that the stickiness was probably caused by a cartridge that needed to be replaced. I took off the plastic cover of the faucet and used pliers to turn the water on and off. I could not see a "cartridge". Then I saw it. And pulled it out.
WOOOOSH! A torrent of water slammed me in the face. Water is spraying everywhere, the floor, the ceiling, the walls out the door. Pictures are being knocked off the wall. I am drenched. The bathtub is rapidly overflowing. I am desperately trying to force the faucet back into the pipe. Finally after several tries, I do, but then I realize that I can not find the piece that holds it in place (it has been lost in the mayhem). I'm doomed to sit forever holding the faucet in place or to let the water spray everywhere until the entire house is underwater. I prayed, I cursed, I slipped and the faucet shot out of the pipe again. I forced it back in. My arms were getting tired. I realized I needed help.
My wife was at work. The phone was downstairs. The nearest help was my six year old son who was asleep in his room across the hall. I yelled and yelled and yelled. Finally I let go of the faucet and ran into his room and shook him awake. When he saw what had happened he laughed. He later described it as "chaos everywhere".
He helped me look for the missing piece, we could not find it. Finally I jerry-rigged something to hold it in place. I told my son to stay in the bathroom and to yell for me if it came out again. I went downstairs cringing as I saw the soaked ceiling, water pouring out of the light fixture, and the flooded floor. I grabbed the phone and quickly called an all night plumber.
After laughing heartily at me, he graciously told me how to fix the problem, and in the process I discovered the water shut off valve. After a quick change my son and I rushed off to Home Depot to get what we needed to fix the faucet. They did not have it. As we got back home my wife was pulling into the garage. "Wait till you see!" my son yelled before I had a chance to even turn off the van.
Guys, you know your wife loves you when she walks into the kind of disaster my wife saw that day and you live to tell about it.
My wife will tell you that she is not prophetic, but she was that day. She continued to love me despite the damage I had done to the house. She helped me clean the mess I had made and put up with the lack of water that night and the next day. She did not yell at me or tell me how stupid or evil I was. She was very much like God, who when we sin does not condemn us, but cleanses us and forgives us.
Her response is a response the church desperately needs to learn. We have seen many church leaders get caught in sin. This in itself is sad, but the response of the church is tragic. Instead of standing in love with these people, we have often turned our backs on them and even cast them out of our churches. Instead we should be helping them to clean up the mess, loving them even though they did great damage. Staying in relationship with them even though we have to suffer because of their sin. The church cannot grow and mature if we do not learn to work out the problems and difficulties that come about when someone in the body sins. We cannot grow in love if we reject those who sin. We are told to gently restore those who sin (Galatians 6). It's time we started doing this.