Our washing machine went on the blink right before a nine-day local holiday. The machine was showing a “door close” error and refused to wash our clothes. I called a technician in who tested the door close switch and, finding it not to be the problem, told me that the main circuit board needed replacing. I then contacted the service center, and they very politely told me that they couldn’t do anything until after the holiday because all their technicians were going to be off duty.

After the holiday, the service center called me and told me that they would order a replacement circuit board and door switch. Once those came in, the service center would send the technician with the parts. Since the machine was out of warranty, I would have to pay for any parts the technician needed plus the service fee. The cost of the circuit board was about ¼ the price of the original washing machine purchase price.

Well, it took ages for the parts to come in. My wife was washing her clothes by hand, and I was wearing my shirts and pants for as long as I could. (No questions please.) On the two-week mark, one Saturday morning, my wife asked me to take our dirty sheets and towels to a friend’s house who had a washing machine.

That morning in my devotions I had felt the Lord’s prompting to try to repair the machine myself. I even got a couple of ideas as to how to go about it. After delivering the suitcase full of dirty clothes, I got to work. Since I had seen how the technician took the machine apart and tested the door switch, I could repeat the process without any difficulty. I found that the door switch cable and connector were corroded—something the technician had missed. A bit of cleaning and soldering resulted in a working washing machine. The whole job took about 1.5 hours. I wish I would have prayed about it two weeks earlier. I immediately called the service center to cancel the repair ticket. That evening a technician phoned to say he had the part and could he come now. I happily told him that I repaired it myself and he didn’t need to come.

Some lessons

The Lord is deeply involved in our lives! I am sure much of the time he is standing there wondering why we don’t turn to him for help sooner. Not only is he involved, but he is also so willing to talk to us. If the Lord ever gets frustrated, it is probably because we just don’t listen to him. And when we do, we frequently dismiss what we hear.

I wish I could say that I always listen, but that would not be true. I could write a book of stories about how the Lord prompted me to do something and I didn’t do it, and the negative fallout that occurred. But that wouldn’t make for edifying reading! Perhaps if I slowed down a little bit, I would hear the Lord a bit more.

Washing Machine Photo Credit