Unshackled Moments ~ August 18, 2017 ~ Our Thermostat Can't Be Trusted

We've had a fairly mild summer, for which I am grateful. It's been quite hot the last couple of weeks. but I certainly don't have to think hard to remember summers when it got far hotter much earlier, was much drier and the August temperatures were more hellish than the ones we've had in East Texas this year. We haven't even had a burn ban, and that is rare. Still, cooler than usual is not cool. It may be a mild summer, but it's still summer, and that means air conditioning is necessary.

Now I am not one of those who doesn't know how people survived summers before AC. I am aware. I have been there. Texas prisons are not AC and cable filled luxury retreats. They are buildings made of steel and concrete, and the only areas with AC are the offices, medical, and places where visitors will be. So the living areas are hot boxes. Even with fans, the heat can be unbearable and the temperatures regularly are hotter inside than out mid day. And yes, people die from it. Texas just recently lost a law suit over the death of inmates due to heat inside the prisons. I spent eight summers in that heat, and I have not forgotten it in the nine summers since my release. I know how it feels to not have AC and not be able to adjust or escape the rising temperatures caused by the closer summer sun.

I am quite grateful for our AC. I do not take it for granted, especially since with her health issues, Leah can not take the heat. I would be miserable but adjust if the AC stopped. Leah would be in trouble. I have a clear understanding of how precious that cool air is and how important it is. At night we turn the thermostat down a little lower and get it nice and cool, which makes it easier to sleep.

There is a problem with our unit though. It isn't much of a problem at the moment, but I wonder if it will be next year if the summer is not as mild. It runs fine on the cooler setting for a while, but at some point during the night, every night, the thermostat gets tricked or something. The reading says it's cooler in the room than it is. Of course, that means that while the fan kicks on from time to time to circulate the air, the AC doesn't run. It's still cool in the room in the morning, but it's warmer than it should be and much warmer than the 66-69 degrees it reads. We never set the temperature that low, but it starts reading it that cool, which is why the AC doesn't kick on. It's not frozen up, or anything like that. There's an easy but temporary fix. When the room feels warmer than the reading shows, we turn the unit off for about ten seconds, then turn it back on.

Immediately the fan turns on, and the temperature reading begins to climb slowly from wherever it was reading in the 60s, one degree at a time higher and higher until it gets into the mid to upper 70s, at which point the AC kicks on and works great again for a while. I don't mind having to reset it a few times a day, but it does mean that we do not have AC all night long. At some point it becomes fan only or it warms enough that I have to get up and reset it in the middle of the night. If the nights were warmer that getting up to reset it would probably happen more often.

I am not complaining. I wouldn't mind fixing the issue, but it's not that big of a deal to reset it when it begins to feel warm. It's a whole lot better than not having AC. But as I reset it once more this morning after getting up so that I wouldn't have to worry about the air getting warmer than 78 degrees, it occurred to me that I am a lot like the little Ac unit in our window.

I was created and designed to be able to be sensitive to the Spirit and respond according to what the Spirit directs. And I am not so much talking about the old man's creation that has been marred and messed up by the curse. I am referring to the new creation, the second birth of the spirit making me a new creation. Our new nature is connected to and sensitive to the Spirit. But something is a little off with my thermostat. Sin, the cares of life, self-centered will and other things effect it. In the morning, upon waking I get connected with God and determine to let His will guide and direct my thoughts, actions and reactions throughout the day. I deny self and turn my life over to His will and care. Great. That is what I'm supposed to do.

I don't know about you, Dear Reader, but it never lasts as it should. I never have a day, not one single day, where at some point I don't have to be reset. As I go through the day I'll notice that without even realizing it I have gotten off, my reading says I'm in God's will like my AC says it in the 60s, when in truth I have slipped into self or fear or anger or.... like in truth it's closer to 80 degrees than 60. My AC unit can't be trusted to know what the temperature is. I, or Leah, have to make the determination that it isn't reading right and activate a reset.

In the same way, I can not be trusted to accurately evaluate if I am reading where I am at spiritually correctly. I need to the Holy Spirit to let me know when my thermostat starts to get off and do a reset. That is what is so important about a spot check. I can't just review my day at night and see how off I was and do repairs. It's much better to regularly check with Spirit to make sure we're running right as we go about the day. The more we look to the Spirit for these evaluations, mini personal inventories to see where we are and how we are doing, the more we ask is this, where I am and what I am doing right now, the will of God?, and the more promptly we respond to the Spirit's adjusting of our soul and will, the less out of whack the temperature will get. When I realize the temperature reading is wrong before the room actually gets warm enough that the unit should've turned on, I can reset before things ever get to the point where the unit should have kicked on but didn't. Sometimes I miss that but still do the reset before the temperature reaches a bad or uncomfortable place.

If we check with the Spirit often and are quick to respond, then we can get all the tiny adjustments and resets through the day that we need to so that when we get off direction by a degree or two we can be guided back, reset, before we get outside of God's will. Even if we miss that point, the adjustment can be made before we get so far off that things get bad, damage is done and it becomes obvious that we are way off. But if all we do is throw up a prayer in the morning as we rush into our day and not think about or check in with the Spirit throughout the day, if we trust in our thermostat and our ability to judge and guide ourselves in what is loving and right, when we get to the end of the day and look back, we will see that the day was much hotter, much worse than we suspected as we went through it.

Today, let us not trust ourselves to know what is right and if we are walking in it. Let us often look to the Spirit to see if we are in God's will and walking in love, and let us be quick to adjust and allow Him to reset our spirit to His settings and the truth before our misreadings cause us to sin and hurt ourselves or others.

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