No Easy Solutions

No Easy Solutions

Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.

Matthew 7:24

Can you imagine a hot, muggy day in an Amish home, where there is no air-conditioning?

Because Amish don’t choose to accept the luxury of electricity, traditional air-conditioning is simply not an option. One way to keep the house cool is to build their homes with basements that are built into the bank of the hill, at least as much as possible. The soil around the basement is cooler than the air temperature and helps insulate the basement, keeping it cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

In old farmhouses particularly, Amish will “move into the basement” during the summer. They even equip the basements with kitchens so they don’t even need to cook upstairs. The extra kitchen also comes in handy when they host church and hold weddings where they need to feed many people. The floors are concrete, both for easy cleaning and because they feel cool on bare feet!

This makes me consider how often I fall back on an “easy solution” because I didn’t put in enough time preparing. When five o’clock rolls around and I don’t have dinner plans, I order pizza. When I wake up late and don’t have time to read my Bible and pray, I make plans to read and pray later. In fact, much of my life happens haphazardly because I didn’t take time to plan.

If you have easy solutions, are they hurting you in the long run? It’s probably too late to draw up house plans so your house will be more energy efficient, but are there other areas of your life that you can revise? Ask God to show you parts of your life that you can run more effectively. Read God’s Word. His guidance can impact all areas of your life. Then even when storms—or the blazing heat of summer—come, you’ll have a plan in place. You’ll have a solid rock to stand on.

Dear heavenly Father, I know that waiting until the last minute doesn’t give me peace in my heart, nor does it give me time to read Your Word and hear from You. Help me to sit and learn, to listen and wait.