When the Power Goes Out

Last week I needed to replace an outlet in Rachel's room so I went down to the electric panel to shut off the power to her room...and the breakers weren't labeled...

So I spent part of the afternoon with every light in the house turned on, computers and TV off, switching off a breaker, running through the house to see what lights went off, running back to the breaker box. Repeat. And repeat...and repeat...

So, I never did figure out which breaker the computers were on. I thought I checked the light on the printer (which I left plugged in and turned on) every time...but I missed it on one of the runs...

And tonight I was trying to rescue a harddrive (a story for another time) while the girls were watching a movie and Lori wanted to vacuum the dining room... That's when I found out "the hard way" which breaker the computers are on... Not the way you want to find out...

But, all was not lost. The computers are as fine as they were before they lost power suddenly, the TV survived unscathed, so all was pretty okay.

But it could have been...tragic (elctronically speaking, of course - I mean, it's not like REAL tragedy, but stilll...)

So I was thinking...

A lot of people don't really pay attention to what's going on inside 'til the rug gets pulled out from under them. We don't pay attention to where our true power comes from until something tragic and unexpected happens - and it's like the power is gone.

So, sometimes we rely on ourselves - our own strength and resources and abilities - and when they fail us...then what?

Yeah, it's cliche that God is our "power supply" - but isn't it really true, too?

I just heard someone say, "I don't know how people without faith keep going...especially when bad things happen." And I guess I kind of don't know either...

But then I had a reailzation - I SHOULD try to know, right? I should try to understand where folks who have no faith, no church connection, no healthy God experience are coming from - so I can meet them and talk with them and...

Jesus looked at the crowd one time and his heart broke - they were "like sheep without a shepherd." No long discourses on the nature of the sinful heart or the seventeen reasons to go to heaven.

"Give them something to eat."

No...REALLY? There's thousands of them and we have...um...five loaves of bread and a couple of sardines...

But...what if you were them? Wouldn't you be hungry? Wouldn't you hope that there would be something to eat?

But it's nothing...well, almost nothing.

So he takes the almost nothing and provides...too much...

Oh, me of little faith.

Well, God, I've got a little here...can you use it?



**Yep, another morguefile imgage