He Loved Me Enough to Turn Off the A/C

When we begin to forget God, He will stop the flow of
blessings so that we turn to Him again.

I have always admired my Dad's creative mind-except when he has used it to prove a point. The occasion that I am thinking of is a time when he, my mother, my little sister, and I were all driving to Vegas to see a concert. It was the middle of the summer in the afternoon and it was a scorching hot desert to drive through, but of course, it didn't matter too much due to the wonderful invention of air conditioning. Soon I was so comfortable in my backseat with a pillow against the window and my headphones in that I began to doze off. My poor Dad was driving and soon I wasn't the only one asleep-my mother and sister had succumbed to the comfort of modern travel. Feeling a little lonely I'm sure, he began to try to make small talk with us but his efforts were fruitless. We would each give him a sleepy one word response and fall back asleep. Soon he gave up....or so we thought.

All I remember was that slowly I began to get a tad on the warm side. Being sleepy it didn't seem to register too much. But as time passed I went from discomfort to hot to sweaty and miserable; miserable enough to wake up fully and inquire why it was so hot. I wasn't alone. My mother soon piped in "Hey Mike, why is it so hot in here?" I happened to look up just in time to see my Dad grin like the Cheshire cat in the rear view mirror as he said "Oh, does it seem a little warm in here to you?"

He went on to explain that he had tried to get our attention with the small talk but as none of us seemed to be paying much attention to him he decided to cut off the flow of air, hoping to sweat us out. I believe he also justified this act by mentioning it was also giving us an opportunity to feel like the pioneers must have when they crossed the United States in heat. Really, he told us, it was a blessing in disguise. 

And you know what-it was, because I was able to enjoy the rest of the drive getting to know my Dad better, something I would've lost had the a/c stayed on. This is the same exact way our Heavenly Father looks at things. There is a verse in Helaman 12:3 that says:

"And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence they will not remember him"

God will always wait patiently for us to awake and turn to Him

God knows what makes us most happy. He knows, like my Dad knows, that there a lot of things in life we can try to do to "pass the time" on our journey in life. But just as my Dad knows that falling asleep while listening to an IPod will never bring us as much joy as being able to have meaningful conversation with a loving Father, God knows nothing can replace the relationship we could have with Him. In those times when we seem to get distracted or forget or are too comfortable to talk to God He will withdraw the blessings that flow so easily into our lives. It is not out of punishment or anger but really out of love, for He knows that a little bit of hardship for a time is well worth the prize of remembering to call upon our loving Father-he knows that those blessings are far better than going through life comfortably distracted. And most of all, no matter how far away Heavenly Father gets from our minds, it is a comfort to know that we are never far from His-no matter how long we go without noticing Him. (Mosiah 27:30) He will never forget nor forsake us, and will do anything it takes to help us remember Him, so that we may be truly happy in this life.