Too Hot to Make Sense

I cannot remember it ever being this hot, this long.  This kind of heat wears us out.  It can work on your mind and your attitude.  I drive past the guys pouring concrete on Sam Houston Street and I am glad I have mainly an inside in the air conditioning type job. 

What is the hottest, most miserable you have ever been?  A day stands out in my mind from my high school days, working with my father in our dairy and ranch operation.  It was a hot dry August day when we discovered that a windmill we had to provide water for our cattle was not working.  On that particular property, that windmill was the only source of water.  We had to "pull" it which meant we had to pull all the pipe out of the well and replace worn parts until we could get it working again.

The windmill was in a place of no shade, no breeze, high humidity and full sun.  It was hard and frustrating work pulling up a long string of pipes up with a block and tackle. Each joint in the pipes was rusty and hard to break apart.  The pipes grew hot in the sun and the pipe wrenches got so hot you had to wear gloves just to handle them.  It was just my father and I working on it.  I have already told you I am not much of a plumber.  In the peak of the afternoon sun and the height of our frustration, my father let out his exasperation with the statement, "There is just no sense in it being this hot!"

I knew what he meant even though I look back now and see that is not a logical statement.  At that moment we were beyond logic, it was pure emotion.  We finally got it fixed after two days.  The water flowed again and we looked for jobs in the shade and had a new found appreciation for electric pumps.

Maybe you have been there too.  Not working on a windmill but where the difficulty of life just does not make sense.  We wonder why we have to go through what we are facing.  We are discouraged and our thoughts are bleak and full of dread and misery.  We can't change our circumstances and we feel hopeless.  Where can we turn to face what we are having to go through?

Maybe God wants to help us in the very place where things are not making "sense" - our thoughts.  God does want to help us and can change us.  We don't often think of Him changing our line of thinking but the Bible often points to that.  That is where we are headed this Sunday.  We will look at how God wants to change our thought lives, even when life doesn't make sense.

For the journey...

Tim