Challenged To The Core - Kathi Brixey

It finally happened! We had a major electrical “power outage,” three days in a row, each a partial day, but just as inconvenient as the previous one. We still had gas for cooking, candles and flashlights to see with, wood for the fireplace and the luxury of hot running water. However without power refrigerators and freezers cease to stay cold and food does not do well at room temperature. Now I was faced with what to do, do we cook and eat everything or hey why not just put it all out in the snow, it will stay cold outside, right? Over the past week we have learned what it takes to survive a power outage and approximately four and a half feet of snow. We are also thinking that shopping for a generator might be a good idea.

I’m sure you are wondering where I’m going with this, but life is generally pretty much like my past week; un-predictable, inconvenient, and decisions are prioritized by emergency status. There are days where things happen that you have absolutely no control over. Days where your life is getting back to your normal, then along comes another power outage that messes up everything! Well life is what it is, life. How we choose to handle it is another story. So many times as Christians we get caught up in the business of life that we forget the source of our power. We allow the everyday “stuff” that happens to clutter up our day. We then change what we had on our “to-do-list”, allowing it too totally and completely frustrate us beyond belief.

What happened, where did things go wrong? We started the day off by checking our calendars and our lists of activities but forgot to plug into our power source; God! Have you even spoken with God once today? Our days, weeks and months can become so hectic, so filled, that little by little we squeeze God right out of the equation, in effect we are creating our own “power outage.” How then do we get it all done? We must learn to re-charge every morning or evening or when it best fits your lifestyle. Did you notice that I didn’t say your “schedule”? We need to get away from the thought that we have to schedule in God. We are coming before the throne to sit and spend time with our Father. This might mean getting up an hour earlier or turning off the television at night. The point is that we must make a commitment to do it. In the beginning it might feel like a huge sacrifice of time to sleep or possibly to relax in front of the television. However, if you start out with a small amount of time, your desire will grow until you can’t wait to spend time with God every day.

The more we recharge by spending time with God as our “power source” the easier the day’s challenges will become. Maybe not at first, but they will over time. When we put God in control of the events of our day, our time seems to multiply. Nothing is by coincidence; God’s timing is perfect, so if you can’t complete your to-do-list today push it into tomorrow, then wait and see how God takes care of it. You see we can’t do it alone; we need God to be both Lord and Savior in our life. In Jeremiah 29: 11 it says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” Our goal is to release the reins of our life and stay plugged into the “power source” daily. If we try to do “life” on our own we’ll manage it for a while, but when things begin to pile up we can count on a major “power outage”.

My prayer for you this week as you “check your pulse” is that you inspect your “connection” to God as your “power source”. Tighten up any loose connections and replace any worn out wires so that you can put a stop to any “power outages” in our life.