Power

On Sunday morning I was reminded that we actually have one or two people who read this little blog. This morning I actually had something to contribute. Here goes...

I live a block from Power Road. Several times a week my little league team plays a block from Power Road, just half a mile away from where I sit now. The team is a great combination of kids - plenty of natural talent, well-equipped. And yet we're winning just over half of our games. The main reason: lack of power. Our best pitchers and strongest hitters seem to be lacking power, and it's affecting the whole team. It's like the whole team is "a block away from Power". So while we have great resources at our disposal, we can't do much without the necessary power. I believe it can be there - I've seen glimpses of it - I just don't know if it will show up in time for when it really counts or not.

Right now a generator is humming away outside my house, like it has for the last 20-odd hours. You see, we lost our power in yesterday's storm and we've had to generate our own just to keep the food from rotting. It also keeps the kids entertained with DVDs, keeps a fan or two running, and powers up my computers (but without internet access). We have all these resources at our fingertips, but most of them we can't use without some REAL power beyond what we can generate ourselves. And with gasoline at $4.05 per gallon these days, generating our own power is a very costly endeavor indeed.

Yesterday I was reading a chapter in Scot McKinights "Embracing Grace" and he said that when we think of loving God with all our strength, we usually picture a fitness guru or body builder, where the strength is something we build up. He said that our strength is really more about all of the resources at our disposal - our "strengths" if you will - and that everything we have and our should be dedicated to demonstrating our love for God.

I'm getting the feeling that God is trying to tell me something.

Without REAL power, none of the resources, skills, talents, abilities, or tools at my disposal are worth much. I say I want to love God with my whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and love my neighbor as well as I love myself, but without God providing the power I'll be as lethargic as I have been for the last week - unable to stay up late in spite of caffeine, unable to get "up at at em" in the morning like I've been able. I'm physically and mentally dragging, lacking power.

Yesterday Tom and I led worship with just a couple of acoustic guitars. We had our guitars plugged into an amplifier and I used a microphone, but with the small group of people, we really didn't need to do that. We were supposed to have a drummer and bass player and do a big band event for this little church community, but things fell through that were beyond our power to control. And in the end, the people seemed geniunely moved to worship. We hadn't even prayed beforehand or even prepared much because the songs were selected at the last minute due to the drummer's late notice.

I wonder what would have happened had I prayed.

I wonder how different things would have been if I had begged God for His power.

I wonder how much better things would be if I stopped relying on my own resources, strengths, and ability to generate power, and switched over to solely relying on God's.

I wonder when I'll stop wondering and start doing something about it...