When The Fix Becomes The Problem

Last year while Susanne and I were away for a long weekend in Boston I received a text from a friend that read as follows:

"Sorry to bug you, but when convenient can you call Keith? Had an issue with your heat and house, but we are on it, no worries . .?. ."

Keith & Liz are more than dear friends, they are family. As Keith so often does, he will check in on things when we are gone and cares for us as if we were his own kids.

On this particular weekend, we had sub-zero temperatures and when you know you had subzero temperatures and then get a text that says "had an issue with your heat and house" you do not take much comfort in the part that says "no worries".

I called Keith and explained to me that one of the pipes that run along an outside wall and into our cellar, which is heavily insulated had frozen. When he tried to get to the pipe to get it to thaw, he was unable to because the spray foam insulation that we had was actually working too well.

He told me that at one point he brought the temperature of our cellar up to 130 degrees and still no luck, the pipe was so packed into the insulation that he could not get to it and it remained frozen. The good news is that there was a fix and it was not going to burst, but we would have to wait until that Monday to address it fully.

As I pondered this issue and the fact that the insulation was working too well, I could not help but think that this is not so different than what many of us do. We put insulation around ourselves, our hearts, and our minds. We pack it around us to the point where there is very little that can penetrate or get to us and we end up in isolation, alone, void of community, and living a life that is far less than wholehearted.

This insulation can be in the form of social media, our reluctance to be vulnerable, fear or expectation, our obsession with work, addictions, and any number of things. And, the more we insulate, the further we get from the truest form of ourselves.

Take some time this weekend to evaluate where you may be insulating and more importantly, why? Try to identify those things that you use as insulation then take one small step to allow some thawing to occur and begin the process of getting back to whom God created you to be.

On the journey with you,

Carlos