It's all about the temperature...

Just returned last night from a family vacation at the beach, including Mom and Dad, Kim and Ken and their family, Rob and Cas and kids, Tom and I, our grandchildren from North Carolina, Tyler, Molli & Laney and Talia and Jimmy.  We had lots of great dinners cooked by Grandma and spent some time in the ocean trying to let dad “treat” his bad leg with the salt water, while we all flopped around trying to hold him up.  Good times.  The only obvious “disagreement” in all this group of people was the temperature.  Imagine that.  It wasn’t where we eat, what we do, who goes where, all that jazz that usually stirs up debate and disagreement.  It was the thermometer.

We were staying in our two places which are about a block away from each other.  Mom and Dad and Kim and her family in one, and our family in the other.  Mom and Dad have no air conditioning at home, and Dad freezes all the time from fibromyalgia, so everyone in Kim’s group tried to accommodate him with not turning the air conditioner on very high.  When we would go over for dinner, it was like a sauna.  But we all knew why, and that was good and understandable.  We’re talking about a man who sleeps in the summer in two layers of sweatpants and a toboggan.  We’ve teased him for years about going camping in the summer and wearing a toboggan.  That said, when you hurt because of the cold, no one is going to crank it up so they can be more comfortable. 

In our condo, we have Molli who is almost nine months pregnant and burning up and Tom who loves the air conditioner.  I grew up with no air conditioning, so I don’t like it so much, and Talia and Jimmy are too cheap to run theirs very often, so they keep their house fairly warm and open windows.  Tyler is used to it being very cold, so now he’s the one that’s the most vocal when they come to our house about how hot it is.  One night, Talia and Jimmy had four extra blankets on their bed, and Tyler and Molli woke up talking about how scorching it was in their room.  The two couples switched rooms, and all went well.  Seems the air vent wasn’t working in their bedroom or something.

And all this leads to what?  The temperature is important.  It’s important in everything we do.  Are you raring hot to go to work?  Are you too cold to listen to someone else’s problems?  Are you so lukewarm that you don’t care about anything?  I fear our country is becoming so lukewarm that we don’t get excited about anything.  Baby parts being sold…yeah, that’s bad but we can’t do anything about it.  Marriages falling apart all over, children becoming addicted to pornography…yeah, not good, but who can really change that?  Iran getting a nuke and blowing up Israel…well, that’s them over there and doesn’t really affect us.  Same for all those refugees (fancy word for desperate people trying to escape murder and mayhem).

We took an afternoon and went to the movie War Room.  Phenomenal movie – one of the best I have seen in years.  It had everything:  Romance, faith, humor, a story you take home with you – cannot encourage you enough to go see it!  It will change your life if you let it.  One of the very first “attention grabbing” points was made about one woman giving another woman lukewarm coffee to drink when she invited her in as a guest.  The guest says, “Do you always drink your coffee lukewarm?”  “Why, no, I don’t – I like mine hot!” is the reply.  Which then leads into a spiritual discussion about what God does with us when we’re lukewarm, how ineffective and worthless to Him we are, and frankly, worthless to ourselves.  This movie paints a picture of how to live a life – a life that is NOT lukewarm, does not lay down and just say, “Well, okay, I can’t really do anything about this, so I’m not going to try, I’m just going to let whatever happens happen.”  NO!  NO!  NO!  It is YOUR life, so don’t you want it to be the best it can be?  Don’t you want your marriage to be a place of solace, a place of peace and contentment, each partner giving to the other and not punishing through words or deeds?  Don’t you want your relationships with others to be a gift to them, not a curse?  Don’t you want to enjoy your job and care about the responsibilities you have?  Don’t you want to be a blessing to this world and the people around you?
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I urge you to take a couple hours this weekend or this upcoming week and go see this movie.  If it does not change the way you think and give you hope, I will personally give you your money back.  It is not a big sermon that’s nothing but Bible thumping and preaching – it’s a movie about a family that is headed for destruction until something miraculous happens in the midst of all that pain….give it a chance, and you could see your mess turn into a miracle!
 
 

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