This week a few of my friends and I went camping in one of my friend’s RV. We spent the day in various activities and wrapped up the day with a light dinner and got ready for bed. As we were about to head to bed the carbon monoxide alarm starting going off. We pushed the reset button and silenced it and went on about our business. About 5 minutes later it went off again. We silenced it again. 5 minutes later it went off again. By this time it occurred to us that this alarm was probably going to be going off all night unless we either 1) figured out why it was going off and address the root cause ; or 2) disconnect the alarm. A quick assessment of the environment lead us to believe that we were in no danger and that the alarm was either ultra sensitive to something in the air or malfunctioning. But the real issue was that the alarm was hard-wired into the RV so it was no simple matter to disconnect it.
It was already late in the night and we were ready to go to bed. Frustrations begin to rapidly grow as every few minutes the alarm would go off. All I could think about was how my planned night’s sleep was going to be regularly interrupted by the alarm. This was not good!! We all needed our sleep. And to think about having to sleep with one ear listening for the alarm so as to not be scared to death when it went off was just not acceptable. We read the owner’s manual to try and figure out how to disconnect the alarm but there was nothing giving us those instructions.
As we jumped up every few minutes to hit the reset button on the alarm it occurred to me that this must be something like my friends living on the street experience every night. They’d love to have a good night’s sleep – uninterrupted and quiet. But most of them lay down for the evening in fear of being woken up by passers-by, by the weather or by the police. They know they can’t get too comfortable because a siren might come screaming by and wake them up. That’s life on the street – not just one night but every night.
Within about a hour we found the fuse box for the RV and pulled the fuse powering the alarms so we had our quiet night’s sleep. Simple solution once we were able to figure it out. I just wish it was that simple for the people looking for a good night’s sleep on the streets of Nashville.
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About Me
- Doug
- After 27 years in the business world I was blessed to be “called” into ministry and even more blessed to be able to serve at Otter Creek church. I spend part of my days working in roles that support the “institution” and our congregation. I spend the other part of my time working as a “street” minister – reaching out to those in poverty, single moms, people struggling with addictions, homelessness, in jail, etc (see Matt. 25). My calling is to blend these 2 areas of work so that I can lead and walk with others who want to experience serving Christ in a real and tangible way. I believe I must walk the walk before I can talk the talk. The path I’m trying to blaze for our church looks a little different than most. It seeks to connect the desire to serve Jesus with real life ways to be His hands and feet that make a difference in people’s lives. I’m convinced that those of us serving are more significantly affected than those we serve.
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