Pour on the Power

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Back in the 1980’s, Sandi Patty had a musical hit called “Pour on the Power.” The kids and I often had the cassette version playing in our mini-van as we carpooled and ran errands, and I especially loved this part of the song:

You may think you’re at a wall
But it’s just a door, that’s all
‘Cause you ain’t seen nothin’
Till you pour on the power.

She was singing about the power of Christ, but this weekend we came to a wall of powerlessness of another sort: an electrical outage. Very late Thursday night (i.e. the wee small hours of Friday morning) the house went dark during a wild windstorm when several trees fell across nearby power lines.

As the house gradually cooled off, we headed for our down comforters, confident the power would be turned on as we slept. But when morning came, electricity didn’t, so we scooted our chairs closer to the fireplace and warmed day-old coffee in an old sauce pan, laughing about the inconvenience.  When our next door neighbor Bob arrived with an armload of firewood, it was better than Santa Claus.

By evening, however, when the refrigerator’s contents had gotten warm and the hot water cold, none of it was fun anymore. Our youngsters missed their bedtime bath routine, and we worried that 8 week old Emerald, who already had the sniffles, would become cold overnight.

Much of the world has figured out how to live with difficult conditions, but we haven’t, relying on well-powered electrical lines that have made us grow soft in the process. A power outage is cause for complaining, and I even found myself angry at the electric stove/oven because it wasn’t gas-powered.

But as Sandy Patti sang, when we feel we’ve come to a dead-end, we should watch for a surge of God’s power. He’ll always provide that, as well as ideas on how to move forward, despite the dead-end we think we see. He’ll also faithfully match his power-to-endure with our need for it.

As God orchestrates tests for us (some small, some big) he says, “Let’s see if you can apply what you’ve learned about Me and My promises in this situation. Will you believe Me? Will you take advantage of the divine power I’m offering to share with you?”

Our God is practical. He doesn’t expect us to love miserable circumstances, but he does hope we’ll respond to the challenges he sends, even the small ones like power outages, with open minds and cheerful hearts. His desire is that we rely on his power instead of our own to get through everything, no matter what it is.

As for our power outage, I’m not sure if it was the power company or the power of God that turned it back on, but 24 hours after we’d gone dark, someone “poured on the pour” and light (and heat) flooded our home.  It was hallelujah’s all around, and however it happened, we were grateful.

“The Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 4:20)

A Good Conversation

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Little Emerald, at 8 weeks, knows nothing of speech. She hasn’t even begun cooing, though she’s hinted it’s just around the corner. Nine month old Autumn, however, said her first word yesterday (“mama”).

The development of a child’s speech is a marvel. By the time she’s 2½, she can handle a back-and-forth with adults, the conversations minimal or maximal depending on the personality of the child.

My 5 oldest grandchildren (ages 4, 3, 2, 2, 2) can all hold their own with the rest of us. When they’re at home in Florida and England, it’s those conversations I miss the most. Once in a while I’ll get to have phone chit-chats with them, though those can’t compare with face-to-face, because poor connections sometimes muddle their words.

Often those conversations are dominated by my repeated question, “What did you say?” and of course every encounter has to end with a goodbye. After that, they’re all far away again.

Sometimes I fantasize about a certain conversation, an unusual one, that I’m going to have with Jesus Christ when I see him. Right now our communication tends to be one-sided, mostly mine, and although I know he hears me and speaks back through Scripture, our connection can’t compare to how it will be when we’re face-to-face. These days I’m sometimes confused and often ask him, “What did you say?”

But what will it feel like to look into the loving face of Jesus, to study his expression as he talks to me, and to hear him perfectly? I would imagine the inner satisfaction will be very deep, a sort of grand finale’ to years of longing. Being up close and personal with him will be a thrill unlike any I’ve known on earth.

But today I was wondering what our first face-to-face conversation might feel like to him. Is he looking forward to it, too?

I believe when Christians pass through physical death, waiting on the other side is an immediate connection with Jesus Christ, one-on-one. When it’s my turn and I arrive to him, maybe he’ll feel a sense of satisfaction in witnessing my awe over him, much like parents delight in watching a child receive something she’s always wanted.

Jesus might also take pleasure in knowing he has followed through, giving what he promised he would. Faith will have become sight for me, and he will have done what he said he was going to do. Watching me thoroughly “get that” might bring a blessing to him.

In any case, I’m eagerly anticipating that face-time, and when it happens, I sure hope I don’t mess it up by talking too much.

“So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:6,8)

No-el

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Every family has its special holiday traditions and customs, from favorite foods to must-do celebrations. Christmas trees are adorned with unique homemade ornaments, scruffy from years of use, and the same well-worn household decorations come out year after year. Lifted out of tattered storage boxes, they bring a fresh thrill each December.

When it comes time to put away our family’s Christmas things, I always leave two items for LIFO (last-in, first-out): my giant canister of holiday cd’s, and the tin of holiday necklaces, earrings, and broaches. After December 1st, it’s only Christmas music at our house, and it’s holiday “jewelry” every day.

When the kids were little, they argued over who would wear which of the pins and trinkets in the jewelry tin, some of them crudely made by pudgy fingers in kindergarten. But for years now, my grown children haven’t cared to wear them, so I’ve been the only one dipping into the tin. That is until this year. Suddenly my old Christmas baubles have taken on new life in the hands of my grands.

Skylar in particular has been fascinated with their “beauty,” and Nicholas has been concerned over the “pokey’s” on the broaches, wanting each one safely clasped. Last Sunday I pleased them all by wearing the biggest broach, a red ceramic “Noel” pin 5” long that included a chunky poinsettia.

But while bending down to hug a child after church, I heard a crack and realized I’d pressed him up against the broach. “Ouch!” he said, and pulled away, looking up at me.

“Oh my!” I said. “I think I hugged you into my pin!”

We rubbed his head, and he skipped off to get a Christmas cookie. That night when I went to remove the broach and put it away, I realized the crack I’d heard hadn’t been a child’s head at all but the snapping of the broach in half. When I took it off, it simply said, “No” instead of “Noel.” Eventually I went back to church to hunt for the “el” but never found it.

The word “noel” has become synonymous with Christmas, but originally it meant birth or day of birth. That’s where our Christmas carol The First Noel got its story-line: “Noel, noel, born is the King of Israel.”

But what about the “el?” It’s definition  is a good one: the name of God as strength, might, power, sovereignty. “El” is used hundreds of time in Scripture, often coupled with more descriptive words that detail God’s character: El Emet (God of truth), El Olam (everlasting God), El De’ot (God of knowledge), El Hakkavod (God of glory), and many more.

And on Sunday I lost my “EL!”

But what a glorious miracle to know that throughout my lifetime, my real EL cannot be lost, because I will never say NO to EL Chaiyai, “The God of my life.”

“By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life (El Chaiyai)” (Psalm 42:8)