WRITTEN BY TIM LABRECHE
If you didn’t know, my family are transplants from West Michigan. Holland, Michigan to be more precise. This spring will be 16 years since we’ve called Iowa home. As much as we love Le Mars, naturally, there are some things we miss about Holland. One thing is something called the Snowmelt System.
If you haven’t heard about it the snowmelt system keeps many of the streets and sidewalks in downtown Holland free of snow and ice during the wildest of winter storms. Residents and business owners in areas where the snowmelt system is installed do not have to worry about clearing the wintry mix in front of their property. The coffeeshop I managed was downtown and on the snowmelt system. It was always nice to have a clean street and sidewalk out front.
If you’re curious, here’s how it works according to the city website:
“…waste heat from power generation [at the power plant] is captured to heat water, which is circulated through 190 miles of tubing laid underneath the pavement and sidewalks back to the Holland BPW power plant. The system pumps over 4,700 gallons of water per minute at 95 degrees and can melt about one inch of snow per hour at 20 degrees Fahrenheit with winds of 10 mph. The snowmelt system is a closed system meaning it circulates the same water over and over again… Holland’s snowmelt system today provides approximately 690,000 square feet of heated sidewalks and streets. It is the largest publicly-owned snowmelt system in North America.”
We were in Michigan around Christmas to be with family and got to experience how cool it is first-hand again. As I was shopping with Sheila in downtown Holland, the Holy Spirit connected the snow-free sidewalks with something He does in us.
On our own, we can let the dangerous mix of anxieties, hurts, and secrets in our lives accumulate, just like a vicious winter storm. Similar to clearing your driveway after a lake effect snowstorm, it’s a lot of hard work to take care of those issues after they pile up. A single snowflake weighs almost nothing, but when piled on top of each other time and time again, the weight becomes unbearable and makes a clear, safe path harder to maintain.
That’s where the Holy Spirit Snowmelt System comes in. I’m guessing there is a switch at the power plant in Holland that initiates the hot water to be pumped through the 190 miles of tubing. Once the switch is flipped, the hot water flows through the system. We have a similar switch. When we fully surrender our hearts to our Savior, he flows through us. Jesus literally said there will be living water flowing within us.
John 7:37-39 says:
“On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”
So what does it look like to have living water flow within us? There are many different ways it could look. It may show up in unexplained peace when a beloved family member leaves this life and enters the next. It could resemble showing love to someone by giving them a hug when you’re not a “hugger.” In the context of what we’re talking about today, it could also simply be recognizing that you’re not able to sustain the weight of those anxieties, hurts, and secrets you’ve been carrying on your own and surrendering them to the One who can. It’s a pretty simple process that most likely involves repetition. In prayer, surrender them to God by simply praying, “Father, I recognize I can’t carry this any longer. I give it to you to do what only you can do.” You’ll notice I said it most likely involves repetition. That’s because our human nature is going to want to take it back and carry it, because that’s what we’re used to doing. It’s like muscle memory. That’s where the repetition comes in. When you feel those anxieties and hurts come back, surrender them to God again. Keep giving them to him. Just like you have the muscle memory of carrying it, you’ll retrain your brain (neuroplasticity) to automatically go to God with it.
Just like the snowmelt system removes the snow and ice from the streets and sidewalks in Holland, the Holy Spirit continually stirs within us and will remove the snow and ice we’ve allowed to accumulate within us when we surrender it to Him.
