Have you ever experienced an electrical power outage, for a short time, maybe a long period of time? Did you feel irritable, inconvenienced, rushed or hurried? “We overslept, hurry, have cold cereal for breakfast. There is no electricity for the hair dryer, put your hair in a ponytail, the bus will be coming, hurry, hurry, hurry!”
David C. McCosland writes: The silence awakened me at 5:30 one morning. There was no gentle whir of fan blades, no reassuring hum from the refrigerator downstairs. A glance out the window confirmed that a power outage had left everyone in our neighborhood without electricity just as they would be preparing for work. I realized that alarm clocks would not sound, and there would be no TV news. Coffee makers, toasters, hair dryers, and many telephones would be useless. Beginning a day without power was simply an inconvenience and a disruption of routine-but it felt like a disaster.
Then I thought of how often I rush into the day without spiritual power. I spend more time reading the newspaper than the Bible. Talk radio replaces listening to the Spirit. I react to difficult people and circumstances in a spirit of fear rather than “a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” that God has given us (2 Timothy 1:7). I must appear as spiritually unkempt as a person who dressed and groomed in the dark.
Our power outage was short-lived, but the lesson remains of my need to begin each day by seeking the Lord. His strength is not for my success or well-being, but so that I will glorify Christ by living in His power.
Matthew 28:18 – Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” The human spirit fails us unless the Holy Spirit fills us. Amen.