It’s HOT!!! And that heat is the topic of a lot of conversations this August. Shame on the yearly weather pattern’s relentless attack on the month of August, marking it as a month of misery and high energy and water bills. 

I realize the importance of exercise and activity, but this heat has snuffed out any thoughts of morning strolls. Last night I thought I might take a brief walk down our street, thinking the night air had suppressed some of the heat. Wrong thinking! The heat had retained a tenacious grip on the thermostat. The oven temps were still just outside our door.

This record-breaking heat has not only curtailed any thoughts of outdoor exercise, it’s also tortured my plant life in our yard. The spring season promised me a sufficient crop of tomatoes for summer enjoyment, but August has sweltered my two healthy plants into survival mode. That mode put a halt on fruit-bearing! My potted plants outside my back door are alive only because of the water hose and my pity on their plight. Their sunbaked leaves – even the plants I try to shade – show me the extent of this August’s ruthless heat.

With each day’s continuous heat pattern, I don’t have to be reminded of the blessings of A/C. The humming of that unit outside our bedroom causes me to break forth in praise for the comfort of that wonderful invention.

I confess that the oppressive heat OUTSIDE our front door makes me think of hell and the fires that never die. My mind doesn’t have the means of comprehending a lake of fire that will burn eternally – causing suffering and agony with no one to offer relief or a way out. Death closed that door for all who refused Jesus’ invitation to eternal life with Him.

As I water my thirsty, drying, some dying plants, I pray for and long to see those without Christ thirst for His living water. I see so much thirst for so many things in the world around me that will never satisfy and that death will end.

Could this attention-getting heat wave actually be a warning – a wake up call from God to those who are destined to the lake of fire? Hell is not a popular topic of conversation in today’s society, but the majority of us have no hesitation in discussing the rising temperatures of August.

I’m asking God to let the “outside oven” misery remind me to leave off complaining about the discomfort it causes me and pray for those whose eyes have been blinded to eternity in hell. That heat and suffering is beyond my imagination.

Letters to Camille Anding may be sent to P.O. Box 551, Brookhaven, MS 39602.