Pay Attention

Apr 9, 2023 | by The Fellowship

We are inundated with alerts daily.  The microwave makes noise when the muffin has been heated. The clothes dryer beeps when clothes are dry.  The phone rings with an incoming call or a text message. God also loves to send us subtle alerts and warnings – the question is … are we listening? 

I am typically a routine person every morning … walk into the kitchen, give the ‘starving’ cat a snack, fix my husband a cup of coffee and get myself a cup of tea.   But on this particular morning, I heard something odd … a faint hiss from our kitchen stove area.  Yes, that would be a gas stove. I checked each of the four knobs and they were all in the off position. It was early morning, and I was somewhat sleepy, and this was making no sense to me.

I called for my husband who came towards the kitchen and immediately smelled gas … that rotten egg smell.  I did not smell anything – because of a stuffy nose from our recent vacation. He too checked the knobs repeatedly … until he noticed that one knob was slightly cracked, which would not allow a firm grip on the metal ‘connector’ to turn off the gas. He took a good knob and made sure they were all off – the slight hiss ceased. We opened two windows and got ourselves ready for work and left.

While at work, I kept having weird thoughts regarding the gas … what if it was still on?  What if I get a call that our home blew up?  What if we ‘think’ there is not a gas issue, and we sleep that night … and do not wake up.  The devil loves it when our imaginations run wild … and create stories which will hijack our thoughts, our emotions. My co-workers in my office suite were not in that day (I would have talked to them about it), so I just tried to work and keep my mind off those crazy thoughts.

About eight hours later, I returned from work and pulled my car into the garage. Upon opening my car door, I immediately thought I smelled gas. Then I considered it my imagination – after all, my husband made sure the stove was off … and why would kitchen stove gas be in the garage? When I entered the house, it was not my imagination - I could smell the gas … again.

I called my husband – who in turn phoned the gas company.  I moved my car out of the garage and into the street to wait for the company to call me.  After 20 minutes, there was no call – but the gas company truck showed up.

The technician immediately went to work; he specifically checked everything he could find inside – the stove, the oven, the fireplace, the clothes dryer. He went back and forth from inside the house to outside, then back inside. He was having much difficulty finding the source.  Everything was shut off … but the gas meter was still registering usage. He was puzzled. What should have been an easy check of a few minutes was taking much longer.

After a few trips to the attic, he determined that the cause was one of our hot water heaters. Our technician turned the gas valve off and directed us to call a plumber to check out our issue.

The next morning, my husband called a plumber … and they were able to come to our home the same day.  After much evaluation, it was determined that the hot water valve assembly was leaking gas and it needed replacing … as well as the corroded supply lines at the top of the heater. Six hours and a chunk of money later – we are no longer smelling gas and our home is safe!

The minor issue with the stove knob alerted us to a bigger issue, which could have caused so many more problems in our home … and perhaps our safety.  We are so thankful to God for the subtle alerts in our lives … we just need to slow down, pay attention, and listen to them.

A.C.

… he protects the way of his faithful ones. 
Proverbs 2:8