One of the little drawbacks of my cottage is that it does not have central heating. When I tell people that, they look at me like I have lost my mind. They cannot conceive of a house today that does not have central heating. What it does have is two electric baseboard heaters in the front of the house and a pellet stove in the back of the house. The pellet stove does a great job of heating the house up when it is on. When it is not on, it can get chilly. One day last week when I woke up, my bedroom was 42 degrees!
The problem has been that I cannot get the stove to work. It just is not drawing enough oxygen to keep the fire going. I have done everything that I can think of to do. My father has worked on it. I have sought advice and it is still not working. My house is cold and it is NOT WORKING!
I am finding that this one circumstance (piled on top of other recent events) has been rather discouraging to me. I have to admit to feeling a bit of shame that I could let a stove overwhelm me. I am trying to be flexible. I spend evenings in my bedroom wrapped up in a blanket with my laptop on my lap. But I find little threads of resentment creeping in. “I am tired of being cold” “I am tired of this being so difficult” and “I am tired of being relegated to one room of my house”. Those are just some of the negative things I’ve been thinking.
The reality is that this is a pretty small problem. I work with the homeless everyday. Of all people I should be grateful to have a place to sleep and to call my own. I guess I need to look at the bigger picture and identify the many ways that God continues to show grace and love to me every day.
Tonight when I go home, I am going to turn the baseboard heaters up, put the space heater in the bedroom and enjoy having a warm cosy place to relax and be thankful for what I am being given.
"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful"
Colossians 4:2
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