Finding God in the Cold Moments

By: Leigha Pindroh, Director of Marketing and Communications

Yesterday in our staff meeting, Pastor Tom shared a scripture lesson about those moments in life when everything seems to go wrong—when we find ourselves looking up at the sky asking, “God, why is this happening?” Pastor Tom talked about the Israelites, overwhelmed and weary, crying out to God in their distress and wondering if He had forgotten them.

Little did I know how quickly that message would hit home.

After work, I went back to my house to discover that our furnace had stopped working sometime during the day. The temperature inside was already down to 58 degrees and dropping. Immediately, the questions started swirling: How quickly can someone come fix this? Where are we going to sleep tonight? And how much is this going to cost… just weeks before Christmas?

I felt that same urge to look up and shout, “Really, God?”

I took a deep breath and called a repairman, hoping it would be a simple fix and that we’d only be cold for one night. As I paced around our chilly living room, my mind went right back to Pastor Tom’s message from just a few hours earlier. Now, my situation was certainly not as serious as what the Israelites faced, and deep down I knew my family would be safe. But still—this unexpected setback felt like a blow, one I wasn’t prepared for.

And then, something small but significant happened. Our neighbors reached out with recommendations and offers of help, and before long we were packing up and heading a few houses down for an impromptu sleepover—to my children’s absolute delight. In the midst of the disruption, we were reminded that even in inconvenient, stressful moments, we weren’t alone. God was present— in the kindness of neighbors who opened their doors, and in the reassurance that the repairman would arrive first thing in the morning.