A Little Good News

No matter where you live in the United States (with the exception of the West Coast), you are probably living in a heat wave at the present time. The same is true in Georgia right now. Temperatures sore each day to over 100 degrees with high humidity. Talk about yuck...sticky, hot, and absolutely miserable. Thus, this past Saturday afternoon when my air conditioning stopped working, we could immediately tell that something wasn't quite right.

My wife and I were in the process of painting our little boy's bedroom. He will turn two years old on Friday, and we are transforming his room into a "big boy" room. As we coated the walls with shades of Georgia red, I wondered silently why someone had turned off the A/C. A trip to the thermostat revealed that our house was a toasty 86 degrees. I quickly jumped into "jack of all trades" mode. Upon arriving at the breaker box in our basement, I found that the breaker had simply tripped. No problem there. I flipped the breaker and wonderful cool air began flowing again through the house...but not for long. Only ten minutes or so went by before the breaker tripped again. On my return trip to the breaker, I found that the breaker was extremely hot to the touch...a sign of a compressor going bad...or at least I thought.

On Sunday morning, after sleeping through a hot night, I shared my woes with a friend at church. My friend asked, "will you be home after church?" I replied, "sure will." He asked, "do you mind if I come by and look at your A/C?" "Do I mind...no way." I was sure that I would be without A/C for at least one more day until the heating and air specialists came back to work on Monday. The prospect of getting something done earlier almost seemed too good to be true.

To make a long story short, my friend did come by that afternoon with tools in hand. After a quick inspection of the breaker box, he found that my compressor was fine and that my whole problem was a simple loose wire connection in the box (alot of folks might say my main problem is a loose wire!). After tightening the wire, the A/C was up and running again like new. After a few hours, the house was tolerably cool again. My entire countenance changed. Before the A/C was fixed, I was hot, uncomfortable, agitated, and just out of my comfort zone completely. After the A/C was fixed, I was back to myself.

There are many people who face circumstances much worse than a broken A/C unit on a daily basis. They yearn for a little bit of good news. They look for solutions to their problems and understanding from a friend like the kind I had received from my friend at church. We may not have the solutions or the right tools to "fix" their problems. But the one thing I'm sure of, a little good news goes a long way. A smile, a listening ear, a touch of compassion, a willingness to be of help...all of these can brighten the countenance of those who are in the dark valleys of life. Do you have some good news to share with a friend? Don't be shy and assume you're only going to be an intrusion or a bother. Go out of your way to share a little good news. It might just be someone's saving grace when they need it most.