By Donnie Stubblefield
My wife and I came home from enjoying dinner out last Thursday evening to a uncomfortable setting. When we walked in the house and took off our coats, we realized the house was not as warm as we are accustomed to. I looked at our thermostat. The temperature showed 62 degrees, but the setting was at 70 degrees. This dropping temperature was only going to get worse with a forecast of 20 degrees overnight. I went to the basement to look at the furnace. I replaced the air filter and checked the temperature control after turning off the fan. I grabbed the tools and removed the temperature control, sanded it down, and put it back in. Nothing kicked on after I turned the fan back on. I had no answers for this problem. I tried to google it, but nothing was coming up because the LED light code said everything was running normally. I had to call someone who was an expert to ask if they would come in the morning to fix it. The expert asked me to check the batteries on the thermostat. I pulled the thermostat from the wall to check. The batteries were working fine, but when I put the thermostat back on the wall, I noticed the fan was positioned to the ‘on’ and not ‘auto’ mode AND the other switch was on A/C instead of the HEAT mode! I reset the thermostat to heat and fan to auto, and everything worked great! We were back in our comfort zone. In talking with my wife, I found out our 2 ½-year-old grandson, with a heart and attitude of exploration, had been to Grandma’s house. He had climbed up on a chair and changed the settings in a matter of seconds. Grandma had caught him on the chair, but not on the thermostat.
It is amazing how we all have our own comfort settings with our faith walk. But, do we know when things are cooling off in our relationship with Christ? In scripture, we read how Israel would be in their comfort zone and ultimately they would put their relationship with God on the back burner while life was good. Only when life became uncomfortable did they realize they still needed to reach out to God. They would return to God and ask for His expert guidance and protection, and He would faithfully restore them. God wants a relationship with us. That is why He sent His one and only Son. Your relationship with God is a free gift of grace!
An ongoing relationship with Jesus is a matter of your attitude toward setting that temperature gauge. I saw this on a meme and it holds true: Judas had the best pastor, the best leader, the best adviser, the best counselor. Yet he failed. The problem is not the leadership or the church you go to. If your attitude or character doesn’t change or your heart doesn’t transform, YOU will always be the same. I pray that your heart’s desire for Jesus will be on fire and your relationship with Him would help those around you whose heart needs to be reset by the Expert who is faithful through all our temperamental temperatures!