Howdy Folks.
Hope you all had a great weekend. I sit here in my office at Grace struggling with what to write about with this space at the start of this newsletter. I think about the current state of things in the world. The events from last week that took over my mind pretty much all of Wednesday, the continued division in the world that seems to divide folks on Facebook daily. I think oh I could write about the lasting goings on of our 4-month puppy at home or my wife receiving good news from her job last week. So many things to talk about. I have decided I am going to talk about my furnace.
Yesterday (Sunday) Betsy was working all day doing inventory at her job and came into the office in the afternoons and work on a few things before helping with the meal at Connections shelter. As I'm at church I receive a text message from my daughter "It's really cold in the house can you turn up the heat?!" I read it but then forgot about it. We can turn up the temperature from our phones so I should have just jumped into the app and done that but I was distracted by something and forgot... a couple hours went by and Betsy replied. She had not been around her phone for a while so she had a far better excuse than me for not responding. She turned the temperature up but asked if warm air was coming out of the vents. Esther's response, "there's air coming out but it’s more cold than warm air." When I got home that night, the temperature had dropped to a nice and cozy 60 degrees in the house. We usually have it set at about 68. I worked on what I could to try to get it up and running again. The pilot light had gone out and I was not able to get it up and running. It would pretend as if it was going to but then not work. We decided we would just through some extra blankets on the beds and get back at it in the morning. This morning we decided to try a new filter. Got to Menards about 6:00 with a picture of the filter I needed. Searched all up and down the aisle nothing. Found out they were out of stock. So off to the next place... not open yet... next place... not open. I drove around for a while frustrated all the time still thinking I was going to have to call the professionals. Finally, Fleet Farm opened and I got the last filter on the shelf that my furnace took. Got home installed that and restarted the cycle to restart it. Finally, the blue flame lit up in side and I sat there hoping it would stay. It did the house started warming up and for now, we believe all is good. We are back up to a balmy 68 degrees in the house.
So why did I decide to tell you this long obnoxious rambling story about my furnace. 1) Listen to your wife right away because she is right when she says it is probably the furnace filter. 2) It got me thinking about filters. I am not going to pretend to be an expert on it because I am far from it. Someone did tell me this morning you could probably run for a little while without a filter, "won't blow up or anything." I am assuming that is true.... Maybe, but I was not going to take the chance.
Philippians 4:8 says
"Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."
How often do we not filter out so much of the bad stuff though in our lives? We let the bad stuff in and make us feel yucky inside and we eventually blow up. We are beloved by God thought. Like the air we breathe, we should let in the honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable and excellent into our lives. Some of the bad may filter through and cause pain but it is important that the good come through. When too much of that bad builds up it can choke out the good. That is when we may need a reminder that we have a God that we can pray to. To ask for help and like the water of baptism can wash us clean and fill us with the Holy Spirit. Changing our filter and making it easier to breathe when the world seems to be trying to fill us with the bad happening around us.
Have a great week everyone
Ben
