(NIV) Philippians 2:3-4
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
I remember how the boiler at 82 Allt-yr-yn decided to break just as we were in the thick of selling the house.
It started at the end of 2023, just after we had put the house up for sale. The boiler stopped working. Although it was over 15 years old, I was determined to make do with a repair rather than replace it entirely. At the time, saving an extra £2,000 felt crucial—especially since we weren’t living there anymore and wouldn’t benefit from a brand-new system. James, the engineer, swapped out the pump, and off I went, hoping that would be enough to see us through.
In the months that followed, I kept noticing the pressure would drop or some random error code would pop up. I could always get the boiler going again, though, and it only needed to work for a few days each time we visited Newport. Whenever doubts crept in about its longevity, my main priority was still saving money. Then we got an offer on the house, and I sort of crossed my fingers that the boiler would hold out until the sale was finalised.
It didn’t. On New Year’s Day 2025—five days before the removal firm was set to pack up the entire house—the boiler chose that moment to give out completely. Temperatures were below zero, snow was falling, and we had no heat or hot water. James came by on January 2nd and discovered the heat exchanger was leaking, causing electrical shorts on the control board. He suggested again that we replace it, but I still resisted. In my mind, it was someone else’s problem once the sale went through. James headed off, I ran a bath, and all seemed fine… for about two hours.
Sure enough, the boiler shut down with an even more serious fault: an ignition error. No matter how much tinkering I did, I couldn’t get it back up and running. It was making alarming bangs and clanks—clear signs it had finally reached its limit.
I talked it over with Steph. We’d already debated the idea of putting in a new boiler, wondering if He was pushing us towards the “right” and “Christian” thing to do given how close we were to handing the house over to a new family. We decided to stop fighting it and just replace the boiler once and for all. James could install a similar model on the 6th—the day we were set to move—for £2,000. It meant a slightly smaller profit on the house, but at least the next family wouldn’t be left in the cold.
The following morning, right after making the decision, something made me check the boiler one last time out of sheer curiosity (the clangs had convinced me it was a lost cause)—and it started! I almost couldn’t believe it. I rushed to fill up the bath for Steph, followed by Isaac. Inexplicably, the boiler worked perfectly for the remainder of our time in the house. It felt like a nudge from above, as though once we’d made the choice to do the right thing, the pressure to endure a freezing house had been lifted.
Looking back, I really do believe it was God urging us to take care of the buyers, even if it cost us a bit of money. We were making a healthy profit from the sale, and the buyers had never once tried to haggle on price. Ensuring they had a functioning boiler in the dead of winter was our responsibility, and it wouldn’t make or break us in the long run.
But He wasn’t quite finished making a point.
A few days after James installed the new boiler, we received the final mortgage settlement ahead of completion. It turned out that over the previous weeks between offer and completion, some figures had shifted and we ended up with an extra £2,000 in our favour—enough to cover exactly the cost of the new boiler. In the end, the cost didn’t touch us at all. It felt like one of those moments that underscores how doing the right thing can bring an unexpected blessing in return, reminding me to stay humble and keep looking out for others in big decisions.
Tags:
DailyNotesFaithAndActionHumilityAndServicePracticalKindnessGodsProvisionAndLoveResilienceAndHumourFamilySupportChangeAndTransition
Themes:
Faith and Action, Humility and Service, Practical Kindness, Transformation Through Faith, God’s Provision and Love, Resilience and Humour, Family Support, Moral Responsibility, Trust and Obedience, Divine Timing, Generosity, Spiritual Growth Through Adversity