Power Outage

This morning – our power went out AGAIN.   That means that I have to go around and re-set all the clocks AGAIN.  Living in the country at the end of the power line a bad wind can knock out your power.  Fortunately, it is usually for just a minute or so.  Only once has it been out for more than a few hours, the worse was during the ice storm when it was out for a day or two.  Usually though, power failures occur due to a big storm rolling through.  A surge from the generator a surge in electricity from the lighting, a pole getting struck a line shorting out. 

We never know what is going to cause our power outages, but we know that they can always happen.  The reason this morning was due to a thunderstorm that rolled through.  When the power goes out it can be a real inconvenience.  You might look at your clock and see the wrong time, your alarm might not be set properly – your coffee maker might not start brewing your coffee on time if you have the coffee maker programmed. 

OK – here we go – relating real life to spiritual life again.  Sometimes we get knocked down or out of the fight.  Something happens that makes us unable to function in the capacity we were just functioning in.  A storm is rolling through our life and BAM you loose your way, you loose power, some thing even bigger hits you and you are down for the count.  You could be going through a deep spiritual battle, wrestling with how you made someone feel, you could be fighting with your spouse, dealing with a sick relative and all the sudden – out of nowhere – your power just fails on you.  You have no more energy, you can’t go on – you can’t deal with it anymore you have an official “power outage”.  There isn’t communication – there is no way to get out of your house because the garage door is stuck and your electric car (lets just pretend that we have those) isn’t going to have enough juice to get you anywhere.  Maybe you just got so used to the power being there- you forgot it was there in the first place.

I know that God has told us to rest, and that God himself rested after making the universe.  I also know that when a lot of these things are going on – it is impossible to rest.  How many of us have said “I don’t have time to be sick, or have a sick kid”?  How many times have we questioned God “Just how much more can I handle?”   Or the times that everything is going really great – you just don’t “need” God right now and so you just ignore Him.  Then you realize that you need Him and there is not a connection, no power.  It is like the power line direct from you to God just goes out.  There is just no communication – no power.  You feel like you are in this alone.  But, God promises to be with us always in Mathew 28:20  “… And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Job, my heart breaks fro Job, Job lost his family, his home, his livelihood, his friends were turning against him.  Job in all this never questioned that his power would be restored, that his connection with God would be restored.  I wish I could say that I was like Job – that I was THAT strong to not follow the crowd and throw God to the wolves.   In the midst of all these trials and tribulations, Job says something that so many of us Christians have heard and love.  Job 19:25: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.”   Later her says in 27:6, “I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.”  …  in 36:26 “How great is God- beyond our understanding!  The number of his years is past finding out!”

Job, even though his power line to God had been extinguished for the time and he lost EVERYTHING that mattered to him, his home, family, job, appearance, EVERYTHING.  He couldn’t hear or see God in anything that was happening.  His connection to God would have easily been lost… 

Even when we don’t have power, we still know that it is going to come back on.  We know that ultimately, our power will be restored and that we will be able to enjoy life again.  So why can’t we have that kind of faith with God.  Even in our roughest situations, we know that our “power” will be restored, we just don’t know how long it will take. 

Now I know that with real, not spiritual, power outages, it makes your appliances weaker and can damage things.  That is why we unplug our computers and TVs and other valuable things that we don’t want to experience a major surge.  With spiritual power outages, it can be damaging too.  We can let it really affect our relationship with God.  We can say – he wasn’t here for me in this situation, or in that one.  But don’t we still need power?    

No matter what, even if we say even if we say – I don’t want to use that power anymore.  I want to not rely on that power company.  You could even say, I am going to get a windmill or solar panels and never have to rely on that power company again…  The power lines are still there- the power company doesn’t come and dig out the power lines, they leave them there, just incase you change your mind.  (believe me on this – we have asked about it)  There is still SOME kind of connection to the power grid or to the company? 

Even if we don’t acknowledge or call on God or want to do things on our own, we are still connected to God because he made us in the first place.  He made us, he created us, he loves us, and he CAN supply the power that we need, as long as we let him.  God is there for us when we need him, when we finally decide to turn to him.  There is so much deeper that we cold go into this analogy – but I am not going to right now.  I just need to remember in times that I feel alone and I feel like my power is out and my connection to God is gone – I just need to rely on my faith – and know that my power lines still run to God- that he is there for me.  I might not be feeling the power of Him at this moment, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t there and that doesn’t mean that my “power” isn’t going to be restored soon.  It is all about FAITH!