Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.

 Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

 but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

(Isaiah 40:28-31)

 

Last Sunday, Hydro One notified people in Brockville that there would be a scheduled power outage between 8 and 10 am.  When I checked the map that was provided on social media, I noticed that the neighbourhood I live in was included in the outage area, so I made sure I got up early enough to shower and make coffee before 8am, and that all my electronics were charged.  In the city its not a huge deal to have a relatively brief power outage; our water doesn’t rely on hydro and really, our house is well enough insulated that a few hours without heat just means we’re just cooling down when the power comes back on. 

 

And really – I did the 1998 Ice Storm with a baby.  That was a power outage. 

 

But from the sounds of the posts on Twitter, following the notification of the power outage, you’d think that the world was coming to an end.  People were outraged that Hydro One would consider doing scheduled maintenance on a Sunday, in January.  How dare they encroach on days when people are home?  How dare they do maintenance in January when it is cold ? How dare they? How dare they? 

 

So Sunday morning came and went, and no power outage.  Turns out that the swath of homes on the outage map was actually only about 100 customers and no where near my house.  I barely noticed – after all, I had to leave to commute up to the church and we had power at Bethel and I know where Gail stocks the coffee. 

 

But what was really funny, was that the lack of power outage apparently was just as enraging for people on social media.  How dare we get threatened by lack of power and then keep power on? How dare they force us to make contingency plans when they aren’t needed?  How dare they expect us to charge our electronics and drink coffee before 8am?  How dare they?  How dare they?

 

We like our hydro, don’t we!  But we like our hydro on our terms.  Power on our demand and according to our schedule.  Lights, coffee and electronics working when we want them to work, not when someone else says that they can work. 

 

And its not too much different in accessing the spiritual strength and power to manage our lives, is it.  We want God to provide us with strength, and capacity and power when we want it.  When we need to recharge, when we need a little boost of energy, when we think our schedules demand it.  And we better not have to wait.  We better not have to consider things like routine maintenance of our spiritual lives, and scheduled outages or retreats to reconnect the faulty connections with God and ourselves.  And when we relent, and do schedule an outage for prayer and meditation; well God better connect at exactly that time. 

 

Because we have schedules, right?  Schedules that we have created for our convenience.  And God better fit God’s self into our schedules.  And our standards.  And our needs. 

 

So when we hear that maybe, just maybe – we may have to wait in hope for renewal, for strength, for the power to manage our lives, it’s a bit of a tough row to hoe.  Because really, it does require us to  realize that God, as the source of our strength and our power, is also the scheduler of our lives.  And there will be times that we need to stock up on God’s strength in anticipation of times when its harder to access.  And there will be times that we think we need to stock up on God’s strength when it turns out that we actually have already been given the capacity to manage.  But at the end of the day, we aren’t the ones in charge of where the strength comes from.  We just are in charge of paying attention to our needs for routine maintenance, for a little extra spiritual caffeine to remain motivated and a little extra charging of our spiritual batteries. 

 

So my dear Bethel friends – take a little extra time to pay attention to God’s schedule in your life, and plan for the potential for brief weary outages of your strength.  Because if we wait and hope on God, we can keep walking and maybe even running through life.

 

Blessings today, and remember you are loved,

~Rev. Lynne