I was in Indiana last week visiting my husband and my new church. I had a great time. It was just the 2 of us. My mom was brave enough to keep all 4 of our children so that Todd and I could spend some time together. Our 15th Wedding Anniversary was the week before and so it was a great way to celebrate.... alone .... with no kids.
The day before I was to come home I received a phone call from my mother, she was pretty upset. She told me that our air conditioner wasn't cooling the house and they were hot. I tried to calm her down as I cruised through Northwest Indiana in my air-conditioned car but it wasn't easy. She just kept going on and on and on and I couldn't stop her. I don't remember exactly what she said but the words "hot","sweltering", "sweating", "heatstroke", and "we're all gonna die!" came up quite a bit. If I'm going to be completely honest with you, I was a little bit put out. I mean, didn't she realize she was putting a damper on my last day with my husband? How bad could it be?
The next morning I was on the road bright and early. Equipped with coffee and snacks, I was ready to take on the long drive home. I hadn't even gotten out of Merrilliville, Indiana when my phone rang. Once again, my mom was griping about how hot she was. It was early in the morning and the house still wasn't cool. We decided it was time to call in the professionals and see what the problem was. I spent the rest of my journey trying to pray through my anxiety. Did you know that those A/C guys charge by the 15 minutes? Whatever happened to by the hour? As I continued to drive, I received several more calls from my mom. She sounded a little bit more frantic each time. When I was about an hour and a half away she informed me that the repairman had finally arrived. It was a bittersweet moment. How much was this going to cost me? Was my mom just exaggerating? Couldn't she just 'tough it out'?
Usually after a long car ride across the country, arriving home is a beautiful moment. Maybe it could be the same for me. Maybe all of my crazed rantings to God would pay off! This was my moment. I was in my neighborhood. I turned onto my street and to my horror he was STILL at my house.. We were coming up on 2 hours and his big white truck was just sitting there in my driveway taunting me. My spirit was broken. Why doesn't God just do what I say?
Even though I had 4 little kids in that house waiting for me, I was dreading walking through that door. When I entered the house I wasn't greeted by Kade or Kennedy or Kaja. Not even the baby or the dog ran to see me. Instead it was the intensity of the smoldering heat that first wrapped it's ugly arms around me. The house was a sauna. I went to the thermostat and saw that it had settled at 96 degrees. I found my mom in the kitchen. She didn't look good at all. It was as if she'd been through battle. I went right to work trying to extract information from her. I peppered her with questions. "What is he saying?" "Exactly how long has he been here?" "Is there any end in sight?" Right in the middle of my interrogation the repairman crept up the stairs and sauntered over to the thermostat like he had all the time in the world. I was afraid to approach him but I knew I had to. The feeling of dread was overwhelming. When I reached his line of vision he shot me a cocky little grin and introduced himself. I forced myself to smile. He spent the next 15 minutes telling me things about the inner workings of an air-conditioning unit. I wanted to scream but I was too hot. Bottom line: Our unit was frozen. We had to turn everything off until the ice thawed. Once it thawed we could turn on the air and it should work. Probably 2 to 3 hours should do the trick. Thankfully Mr. Slowpoke wasn't planning on waiting around for those 2 to 3 hours. When he was done talking he moseyed out to his truck to do the paperwork. I felt nauseous as I dug my checkbook out of my purse and waited for the dreaded total. I'm pretty sure another 15 minutes went by before he finally came back inside with the invoice. Could this day get any worse? He walked through the door and I met him at the dining room table. He handed me a pen and said, "Just sign here. I'm not going to charge you today. They should have found this problem before." I couldn't believe my ears. I don't know what was harder... trying to fight off the urge to burst into tears right then and there or trying to fight off the urge to throw my arms around this complete stranger and not let go. It was a miracle and I knew it.
It took about 12 hours for the house to reach our desired temperature. That entire night was pretty miserable. We were all very irritable and easily agitated. Chances are you are reading this blog from your air-conditioned home or office. You may be thinking that I'm a big baby who can't take the heat. Maybe you are thinking of me what I thought of my mom, that I should just toughen up. Some people think that since I grew up in Arizona, the heat shouldn't affect me. Todd grew up in Canada but he still gets cold in the winter! Have you ever been to Arizona in the summer time? Everyone is ticked off all of the time! The intense heat does something to you. It brings out your very worst. Living there doesn't make you immune to it and it certainly doesn't make you like it. People are screaming at their kids, drivers are running people off the roads, babies are crying.... it's every man for himself.
When you experience extreme heat you behave differently than you do when you're comfortable. You discover things about yourself that aren't necessarily positive. I've been through seasons in my life when I've felt like I was being tested by fire. Like God was turning up the heat. I haven't always passed those tests. I haven't always been proud of my reactions. I usually throw a few temper tantrums, beg God to come to my rescue, and get frustrated when He seems to be taking His sweet time, much like the repairman did. I do always eventually come out of it though. He fixes the air-conditioning in my life and gives me a little reprieve. Then He shows me my new reflection. I'm always a little bit stronger and a little bit wiser than I was before. I always have a new appreciation for life and for the seasons of comfort. But I mostly have a new appreciation for the ultimate Repairman, the only One that can get me through it. Although I don't enjoy the heat one little bit, I know that it's a necessity and at the end of the day, I would endure it again if I had to.... but I really hope I don't have to.
