Hotter Than Necessary

 

We arrived just in time for the hotter part of the year to hit. We always plan our lives around misery. :)

We are staying in a temporary apartment. Our room has a small air conditioner in it. Air conditioners are a luxury item, but to be honest with you, it is a necessity to me. Why? Well, a couple of days ago it was 106 degrees. Our kitchen doesn’t have an AC. It was 102 in our kitchen.

Well, our little unit hasn’t been very good. Since we arrived it hasn’t cooled the room below about 80. That is 20 degrees colder than outside, so who is complaining? Not us.

We met a fellow missionary. They came for the medical conference. We invited them over and, since our bedroom has AC, I told them, “We have a bed in our living room” and invited them in.

“What is your AC on?” They asked.

I told them we have it set on 75, but it doesn’t get cool. It was a little over 80 i our room.

“That isn’t right. We have those type of AC and it works far better than this. I bet your filters are clogged.” They proceeded to tell us how to clean them.

Guess what? After we cleaned them it got so cool in the room that night we had to use the cover on the bed and Denise turned the unit up!

All we had to do was clean the filter. We did not know it. It was like that when we arrived. We just accepted it as normal.

I thought about this.

How much of our lives do we accept as normal when God has so much more for us?

How often do we needlessly suffer because we don’t ask someone for help?

How many times do we decrease our expectations instead of increase our faith?

I thought of my new friend. We did not know them. Yet, they chose to take initiative and speak into our lives…practically, but think about it. First time meeting and pointing out our AC and my lack of such simple maintenance? Risky. They did it for me.

How often do we keep silent when speaking could bless a brother or sister in Christ?

Do we choose the risk free shallow life or the deeper but dangerous waters?

The old saying is, “If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen.” How about this instead? “If you can’t stand the heat, get a friend and put in an air conditioner then have dinner with each other.”

Many problems and discomforts can’t be avoided. So many of them that it doesn’t make sense to live with those that can…I am talking about physical, spiritual and relational. If you can solve the problem, do it.

I wish I did this last month. I sure am sleeping better now.