I didn’t want to open the door to my first visitor’s calling bell. Many of you know I moved into a brand-new apartment recently. On the very first day a middle-aged guy screeching halted his jeep in front of my apartment hardly a few minutes after I moved in and started ringing the doorbell. I didn’t know the guy so opened the door just a little to allow him to introduce himself. He introduced himself as the owner and builder of this mega project over several acres of 3 storied town homes and energy efficient apartments. Hearing that introduction, you would let him in too, right? Yeah, I thought so….. “Do you know how to use this type of thermostat”, he asked. “You could show me how to, if you like”, I said, always eager to learn. He showed me how to press a few buttons and set it on hot or cold and how to increase or decrease the temperature. I already knew it but there was one step that was kinda different. Then he checked the heater filter and welcomed me as I was the first person to move into the building and left as fast as he came. It has been almost a few weeks now and I haven’t had to use the thermostat as my apartment was pretty cool, though it was scorching hot outside. But that specific evening, I noticed as I was working, a few beads of sweat at the tip of my nose! “That is not a good sign”, my mom used to say when I was a little girl, because I perspire selectively at that particular ‘zen’ spot only when I am angry! But I wasn’t angry that day. “Menopausal hot flashes?”, I wondered. “Nah…. I am still too young at heart”, I figured.
Well, it is time to turn on the air conditioner, I realized. Soon, I was fooling around with the thermostat setting, when suddenly the numbers changed from Fahrenheit to Celsius. That was not the only thing that happened! Suddenly all the vents started pushing out hot air and I was not able to change from hot to cold setting and neither was able to lower the temperature. It was stuck! It was 9:30 p.m. Eastern time, when most Americans were already asleep. Slowly the temperature in the apartment started rising from 22 C to 22.5…to 24… to 26 and I was in panicky mode. Didn’t know whether I could call maintenance at this hour. In another 20 minutes the temperature was 29 C and my whole apartment was turning into an oven, and I was no longer sweating only at the tip of my nose! I tried opening all the new windows of my apartment, which wasn’t so easy with the new paint. I also had to open the door to let the cool summer breeze in. I shouldn’t trouble the neighbors at this hour. Had a brilliant idea to call a brilliant school friend who was on the west coast where it was still early evening, who said politely yet bluntly that she didn’t know anything about thermostats. Finally, I called the maintenance guy hesitantly, who sleepily answered the phone and asked me to check the user manual in the furnace room and went back to bed, hanging up the phone. I prayed for wisdom from God in uncharted territory, searched YouTube videos, downloaded all manuals from Google except the one I actually wanted, all while perspiring drenching wet. Then suddenly I remembered a guy who is an expert at collecting such information on the internet. My son! – who is in India, and it is still early morning there! Voila! Called him “Rohit, I am in trouble. Mom needs help!!”, I explained in a panicky voice. He listened calmly as usual, “I am in the middle of Obs/Gyn rounds with the HOD at the hospital”, he whispered. “I ‘ll call back” and he hung up. The last straw of hope just snapped, as I pulled all the cardboard boxes away from the hot furnace which was still working like a maniac so that the house wouldn’t catch fire. Just because I moved in first into the building, I don’t think I get the privilege of calling the fire engine on a brand-new apartment complex first! Cling. The notification button on my phone, pinged. It was a Whatsapp text from my son (told you he was an expert) ‘How to switch off the thermostat?’ – The screen shot read. Genius! I knew I could count on him to rescue me anytime. I was afraid to pull the new thermostat, lest I break it, but I had no option, and I didn’t want to call 911 at 10 p.m and create a big drama. So, I prayed and pulled the plug, so to speak, and everything shut down even though there was no battery. Phew!!!! I felt like a proud fireman who just saved a desperate damsel from a burning furnace!
The next morning my apartment was invaded by the owner, a set of electricians and the maintenance guy to check what the issue was. In a few seconds the owner got on the phone with the thermostat company who installed it in all units. Then I heard it after a long time – that too inside my very house. The first curse word! “You guys are so cheap you f…….ing couldn’t put a battery in the thermostat”, he yelled, followed by a steady stream of curse words. He also switched on the thermostat and it started blowing hot air like the previous night. I was close to him in front of the thermostat, explaining what I did but the heat of the curse words on the phone was much hotter than the hot air from the vents. Then he dished a couple of fluent, fowl sentences at the electricians and walked out of the apartment still on the phone yelling and cursing. What shocked me was, it seemed to come natural to him and he did not even realize he was making everyone around him uncomfortable. The electrical guy apologized looking at my bewildered face as the owner stepped out, “I have been with him 10 years, he is always like this”. I couldn’t imagine 10 years working with a guy who blew more toxic fumes in 10 minutes than I have heard in my entire life! I could hear him tearing and chewing the thermostat guys on the phone on the sidewalk. He was the builder of these beautiful apartments and yet I wonder if he built people around him or tore them down with his mouth. I was almost at the verge of telling him “If you use such language leave my house right now”, but he was the owner and I was the tenant, right? It was like swallowing a gulp of volcano fluid with the hot air and the toxic fumes down my throat. I silently asked the Lord how I can help this 60-year-old man realize what was coming out of his mouth. He whispered, “Just pray for him” and I did right there and continued even after he left my apartment to bring conviction to his heart. Only God can change hearts as everything that comes out of the mouth stems from there!
Tongue…, my friend, is a powerful weapon….. the words that come out of your mouth can build or tear people down. The Scriptures from the Bible say,”” Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossians 4:6). It goes on to say, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians4:29) NIV Perhaps that’s why David cried out to the Lord “Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips”.
Do we watch our mouth and every word that comes out, my friends? Do you build or do you tear down people every day as you navigate life and bump into people at the grocery store or at work, at school, at the cafeteria or at the gas pump, or just within your family. It is a decision which you can follow or at least strive to follow for the rest of your life. But the big question is, “Where have you set your mouth thermostat?”
Scriptures:
Psalms: 141:3 Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.
Proverbs 15:4 The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.
Proverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”
#juneandjesus