Luxurious Living This Instant!

Luxurious Living

It’s summer. It’s hot. And though I do not live in humid Minnesota like my mosquito-bitten relatives, I still know what 90 degrees is. It’s called: sleepless nights. Like I don’t already have a hard enough time sleeping, I do not need to add “ice cube counting” to my repertoire of tricks to fall asleep.

Somehow, with no air conditioning in our townhouses, my management company thinks they can still market our community as “luxurious living.” While my bedroom is on the third level (didn’t the architects know that heat rises?!), I suppose I could set up camp in the garage to find some refreshment, but come on.

I began researching air conditioning units like mad. The Internet has an incredible way of taking you from “clueless” to “expert” in no time. Soon I knew all about BTUs, portable units versus window-mounted, the most popular and reliable brands, and the price ranges for each. I knew I needed a portable one and I knew Costco’s brand (usually the best deal) was in the upper $400 range. Others were selling online between $400 to $700 – without shipping. Yikes. But again, is there a price too high for precious sleep?

I finally drove to Home Depot to interrogate a salesman. I didn’t plan to buy. I just wanted to learn more. But after he showed me the only five remaining portable units (from a shipment of 100 they received just one week before), a $299 price tag, and the fact that they would not be restocking them again this summer, I was sold.

Had I not done any research, I would have balked at the price and walked out of there and back into my torture chamber of “luxurious living.” Instead, I made the purchase, two guys threw the thing in my Subaru, and I was off on cloud nine. I felt as though I had just stolen a treasure chest full of gold. Three hundred bucks for cool and comfort? Are you kidding? I’m the luckiest girl alive!

Do you ever find your less-than-desirable life circumstances to be equivalent with the mercury in hell’s thermometer? Does it seem everyone else’s lives are equipped with central air, while you’re just pining by, paying an arm and a leg to simply try to cool down one room? Is the price tag of your circumstances a rip-off compared to your friends’ and neighbors’?

What if the only “price comparison” or “product research” you did was between you and God’s Word, not you and anyone else? What if you knew you could get through this because your eyes are fixed on the goal, not the neighbors? What if the price you’re paying really is a bargain…because the Lord is with you in it.

“And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you (not on keeping up with the Joneses), because he trusts in you.” Isaiah 26:3 (ESV) (addition Jodi’s)