As I sit and type on this laptop....on a Saturday evening....I can hear....coming from twenty-five or thirty feet away....small 'ding' sounds coming from the kitchen....the refrigerator to be specific....and in no specific cadence....with no rhyme or reason that I have as of yet found from my investigation. I have read through some forums....and watched a couple YouTube's so far....this being the third day. I adjusted a few things here on the refrigerator....and wiggled a few things there....but the dings persist....giving me a faux alarm....or is it really a fake alarm? I plan on continuing this troubleshooting for a few days....and then will come a choice....call the appliance technician....or disable the whole alarm system....which I can probably do by using just one shotgun shell.
My wife likes to listen to country music on the radio as she does things around the house....only turning it off when she sits down to read....which admittedly is quite a few hours every day. So I....usually also about twenty-five or thirty feet away from the radio....get to hear the songs while I do what I do....which is what you are reading. I'm not sure which are more annoying....the haphazard cacophony of intermittent dings....or the country music. No....on second thought I am sure....the country songs are more annoying....because I have not as of yet heard the dings when I am out of the house....but....to give you just the latest example....wherever I am out and about....in the truck maybe....Toby Keith is singing in my inner ear...."I ain't as good as I once was....but I'm as good once....as I ever was." What does that even mean? It doesn't even make sense! Lenin and Hitler.....even Lennon.....all did it to perfection....when you hear something often enough....for example...."Imagine there's no heaven....it's easy if you try"....you naturally tend to accept it as fact.
OK....where am I going with this post. Actually I had one topic in mind...sat down....with the dings in the background....and these two above paragraphs somehow came out....but as Paul Harvey would say...."And now the rest of the story"....that had been in my mind since this dinging began.....
We do not like alarms of any kind....real or fake. We generally do not like to hear the alarm waking us up in the morning.....oh here's a horror thought.....my radio alarm turns on at five AM....and it's Toby Keith singing...."I ain't as good as I once was...."
We do not like the alarm on the car dashboard. We do not like to hear the smoke detector go off. And we should not like to hear police or ambulance sirens or a fire whistle....but all three of those should set us off to praying for whoever is in trouble. Do you do that? When an ambulance speeds by....do you immediately pray?
We also do not like to hear alarms or warnings coming from another Christian....on God's judgments....coming all around us....judgments on all of us. If it's me....you can just avoid me....or if it is a pastor.....well you can change churches easily enough....and if it seems to be every time that you open up God's Word.....well you just don't open it up anymore!
Peter knew that the people had a tendency to say something like...."Yeah I heard that before....about warnings to make sure of their salvation....as we read in....2 Peter 1:12, 13...."Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth being present in you. I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder."
Tomorrow is yet another Lord's Day....twelve hours from now men will be entering their pulpits....or walking up to their transparent podiums or lecterns....may God.....if it be His will....and this be His perfect timing....may He send them to that pulpit or podium or lectern....with an alarm....a warning of alarming proportions....for us to wake up....to see the storm cloud coming....almost over us right now....and then we would pray with a humility we do not often show....for as we see no escape from the coming wrath....we pray as one who once prayed to Jesus....."Lord, I believe; help my unbelief."
Mark 9: 14-29
Much of the top two paragraphs is....tongue in cheek. The dings are not bothering me that much....and I enjoy a lot of country music....but that Toby Keith song is a bit of a nuisance. What I've been doing is that when it comes into my head....I intentional start to sing...."O for a thousand tongues to sing....My great Redeemer's praise."
Update: One week later. I disabled the ice maker....and although when I put it back in service the dinging started again....there were no alarms when it was disabled. OK...a few days later I put the ice maker back in service for water and ice as we had a lot of people over....and the pings....the alarms....have stopped. It has been over 24 hours now?
