If You Think Its Hot Here!

It is amazing how our perspectives of the weather changes with where we live. I grew up along the Texas Gulf Coast along with three brothers and three sisters. A large house for our family in the 40's and 50's would be a 3 or 4 bedroom. We should have been so fortunate! Our first home that my family was able to purchase was a little "shotgun" house with 2 bedrooms. This was in the 1949-51 era, in Houston, Texas. If you are familiar with Houston can you say HOT AND HUMID?
It was in this little home that the ice man came daily, and left a block of ice in the box on the front porch for our "Ice Box". After World War II, most appliances, automobiles and such were in short supply. Air conditioning was not known to most middle and lower income households. It is amazing that this large family could live together in this small house and survive the awful, torrid heat of Houston in the summertime. The ironic thing is--we didn't know we were deprived. We had never had air-conditioning, so we didn't miss it.

How times change and we change. We can survive more that we think we can. Why am I writing this post today? We'll, we have been blessed to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world -- the Puget Sound. Most of the time, we enjoy a 70-75 degrees in the summer. But today was an aberration The temperature topped 100 in our little town of Auburn today. Many of our friends and neighbors do not have air conditioning, so when the temp is 30 degrees above normal, it is painful. I suspect most will survive.

What makes the difference in today and when I was a boy? We were acclimated and didn't know any better.

My friends, in eternity the Bible describes a place called Hell where in Mark 9:48 "'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.' (from New International Version)

It's all a matter of perspective. If you think it's hot here--there is a place that's hotter!

Don Howard
Auburn, Washiungton