My husband woke up and the first thing he said was, "I can't make my coffee." I immediately notified Alabama Power, and they acknowledged they knew about the outage and hoped to have it repaired within two hours. I turned off the air conditioning unit and some other appliances to protect them from a power surge. We made a mental note to not open the refrigerator or freezer just in case it turned out to be longer than two hours. Brad grabbed his battery-powered laptop to begin some work. I ate a cold breakfast (no eggs or pancakes this morning) and began to wonder what I could get accomplished that didn't require electricity. I had needed to spray the house for bugs (saw a cockroach in the bathroom yesterday) so set about doing that. Then Brad and I decided to take a 3-mile walk. I reminded Brad if he showered to remember once our hot water we had ran out, that was it until the power went back on.
By that time, two hours had passed and we still didn't have electricity. So we checked Alabama Power again and saw they found the problem, were repairing it and hoped to have it back on by 2 p.m. So we sat there in the living room, paralyzed by the lack of electricity. We talked about going out to lunch, playing a game, reading a book. But still we just sat there. A half hour later, the power was back on. We sighed in relief and started making lunch and getting about our daily routine.
How blessed we are to have electricity. It keeps us cool, gives us access to entertainment and internet. It helps us cook our meals, wash and dry our clothes, brighten a dark room, open our garage doors, keep our food cold or even frozen, helps us keep track of time and, yes, make coffee.
Frankly, it was embarrassing to me how dependent we were on power. It really stifled our plans by throwing us off our usual morning routine.
But it reminded me of how I should be dependent on the True Power Source. Sometimes I attempt to go through my day without taking time to pray, read Scripture and connect to my Father. Every action I take and every word I speak reflects whether or not I'm plugged in to God Almighty. Scripture says "In Him we live and move and have our being." Acts 17:28 We are told He will make our paths straight and strengthen us. John 15:5 says we can do nothing apart from God unless we abide in Him.
You know this morning when our power went out, I was so discombobulated, I didn't even think to read Scripture or pray? It made a difference in my Saturday.
Psalm 147:5 tells us God is "abundant in power." Ephesian 3:20 says, "Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” And 2 Peter 1:3 says, "By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence."
This Power Source is one that never, ever goes out, keeps us alert without coffee, sustained without food and able to shine without any light bulbs. So plug in and stay plugged in.
