Have you ever felt completely spoiled? Pat and I have, just lately. We live on the Gulf Coast of Florida, more than halfway down the peninsula. In May and June, our temperatures hover up in the mid-90’s just about every day. The nights pretty much stay in the upper 70’s. But, as “they” say, “it ain’t the heat, it’s the humidity.” Our skin leaks a lot when we have to be out in the heat and humidity.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, Pat woke up in the middle of the night and smelled an electric fire kinda smell. She didn’t find anything burning, so went back to bed. Later that morning, we discovered that our air conditioning unit was no longer functioning! Of course, we kept the windows closed in order to preserve what little cool was left.

I called a friend for a reference. We wanted an air conditioning person who was honest and good. Finally, I called a man and asked if he could come and look at the unit. He showed up, went out to look at things and came back in our home. He held up a one inch piece of wire (pictured above) and showed us a 1/16th long bare spot of copper showing through. Somehow, the wire had rubbed a copper tubing and worn the insulated wire down to the core. It shorted out.

The tech worked the rest of the afternoon trying to resurrect our air conditioner. We went from thinking it was fixed to deciding to replace the entire unit. The cost leaped from a little over $300 to more than $3,500! Wow! Of course, it was now late Friday afternoon. There was no way to even begin fixing it until Monday and that was IF the particular unit we needed was in stock some place in town.

I realize that people around the world live in hot and sticky climates with no air conditioner. It’s just that we weren’t real well prepared to suddenly give up our “luxury”! Well, we managed to survive the heat and humidity. We did have a window unit in the den that helped keep the west end of the house a little cooler.

James showed up on Monday morning and worked faithfully, sometimes with his wife, until after dark. He wouldn’t leave until we were up and running again. Thanks, James, for hanging in there with us and doing such a fine job.

The more I looked at that one inch piece of damaged wire, the more I thought, “Duh, there must be some kind of lesson to learn from this whole experience!” Sure enough, the Lord sent me to the book of James. There I read for about the umpteenth time in my life:

     “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. But no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.” (James 1:26; 3:5, 6, 8, 10)

• All it took was a 1/16 inch worn spot on an inch of wire to instigate the demise of our air conditioner.
• That tiny little spot brought down the entire air conditioning unit and caused us no small amount of discomfort and financial pain! (grin)
• In the book of James we read about the danger of tongue abuse.     Read the above scriptures from brother James. He understood that one of the tiniest organs in our bodies, when not kept under strict subjection, can do enormous damage. I suggest you do a word search on “tongue”. Pay close attention to what Proverbs has to say about the “tongue”.The church in which I spent my adolescent and teen years went through more than one split. I’ve seen mighty congregations brought down by the power of the tiny little tongue. I’ve seen gossip and backbiting destroy marriages and families.Sometimes even one word can cause pain to others in our family, church, or among our friends! We don’t have to “mean” to say anything hurtful. We must weigh our words, watch our tongues and be careful. I believe you can fill in the blanks and come up with all kinds of applications to the truths to which I’ve alluded in this piece.If you want to share your thoughts and ideas, use the “Leave a Reply” box below!
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