THE HEAT IS ON!

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 14:12)

There’s a middle-aged woman who attends our church that I will call June. June is on disability and lives in a modern apartment complex for the elderly and disabled. Each winter, June talks about how COLD her apartment is. It’s in a concrete building and it’s a corner apartment. June will describe the windows as becoming all frosted, and herself as being so cold that she snuggles under multiple quilts. She’s also said that she can turn the heat up to 70 or so, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Thursday, she called me with an interesting report. The apartment complex’s maintenance man came in to check that she had enough heat in her apartment. Due to the serious cold snap, and due to the fact that the building is full of elderly and disabled people, he wanted to make sure no one’s heat was malfunctioning. In June’s apartment, he discovered that she had pipes that were nearly freezing. Upon careful inspection, he discovered something important about June’s thermostat. Although residents of June’s building use large air conditioning units which are built into the wall for cooling in the summer, the thermostats are equipped with “Heat” and “Cool” switches. Such thermostats are usually used in buildings which are equipped with huge, commercial air conditioning units on the roof. Switching from “Heat” to “Cool” activates the roof A/C unit. In fact, it’s typical that such a thermostat will have a switch which has 3 settings: “Cool”, “Off” , and “Heat”. In a living situation such as June’s the “Cool” setting is a moot point. It doesn’t do anything. So, it’s like two “Off” settings and a “Heat” setting. June’s thermostat was set on the “Cool” setting (which was essentially an “Off” setting). Thus June’s apartment had the heat OFF. Any heat she WAS getting was filtering in from neighboring apartments!

When June would describe her apartment and how cold it was I’d always assumed the building was very poorly insulated and very poorly constructed. It never occurred to me that the heat would be off! I know you may be amazed that she didn’t notice the “Heat” switch and attempt to engage it, or at least that she never had a maintenance man check out why the heating was so poor. She has lived in that apartment for roughly sixteen years!

That story makes me think of the above Scripture. People constantly say things such as “as long as you’re SINCERE you’re all right with God”. It’s kind of like Linus with the Great Pumpkin and the whole, “nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see,” line that he uses in, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!”

The heat is on in June’s apartment! How’s your heat?