Power

Yesterday afternoon, in the middle of Casablanca, the power went out in our house. It was really quite spectacular. Everything that runs on electricity made this sound like something was blowing up. And off went the lights, the tv, printer, vcr, houghton laptop, Internet, cd player, phone, and ihome. And that's just in my room. As I wondered out into the kitchen I realized that there wasn't really anyway to make dinner beyond pouring cereal in a dish because all of our cooking appliances run off of electricity, too. Then came the clincher. The garage door wouldn't open. Let's just say that situation led to a very interesting ten minutes in my life. Haha. 

When I returned from being nourished by Gram's love and food three hours later, the power was still out. We were without power from 3:30pm - later than 10:00pm. In those hours after night graced the sky, it became even more evident how much our lives revolve around power sources. As we sat around talking by candlelight, we couldn't do the things we normally did as a family. Even play cards or read. 

As I dwelt more on the idea of power, it dawned on me that God really is the power source of our lives. We tend to say that in a cliche way, but there's so much truth behind that statement then what we give it credit for. God created us in our mothers womb. God breathed life into us. He created our bodies in such a way that our hearts beat and blood flow and brain controls everything. And even with all of that, if God isn't the center of our lives, if we don't have intimacy with him, then we are just functioning by candle light. We are missing out on the full range of things that are available to us with electricity. 

There's a gospel song that says "there is power in the name of Jesus." I wonder if we aren't fully using this power because we are plugged into the wrong source. Let me expand. We think that power in Jesus' name means that whatever we ask for in his name will be given to us. So we start to selfishly dwell, more often then not, on the needs of those close to us and our own. But what if the power in Jesus' name is actually about having him love us so that we can love others? What if it means being in a genuine relationship with him (instead of what most people think it is) and falling in love with him so much that our ideas of what is truly needed align. What if power comes more from listening then from talking? 

The thing with power, both electrical and God's, is that we take it for granted. We don't take time to realize what it means that God is the center. We don't take time to even evaluate if God truly is the center. And until we look inside of ourselves to see if our heart is beating love for God, then we are just running on dim, even if we have a relationship with God.