When the lights went out (revised)

The power quit during a communion service in the little church I attend.

Our state in Australia was inundated for several days with storm after storm of wintry blasts from the South Pole...thunder and lightning, hail and rain, wind and stronger wind. Temperatures hovered around the 40s during the day and 30s at night.

On the way to church that morning, I marveled at how much standing water there was, in a land plagued with drought over the last two deacades. Creeks flooded, and paddocks looked like grass-fringed lakes with ducks circling and flapping in the frigid air while sheep and cattle sought higher ground.

As I entered the 150-year-old town hall in Buninyong where the congregation of 30-plus people meet, I noticed everyone was rugged up in woolly scarves and warm winter coats. I found a seat where our backs could be warmed from heat emanating from ancient radiators shaped like curvy Christmas candy painted pine green.

We settled in, sang hymns and modern songs, the offering was taken, and then it was time to remember Jesus' sacrifice, as scripture tells us to. The Body broken for me, the Blood shed to cleanse my sins and make a way for me to be in God's presence now, and forever.

Darkness descended in fits and starts as overhead bulbs flickered. The high windows near the ceiling in the old building are painted beige, so light was dim anyway. The storm had its way, and darkness won the fight. Our pastor's wife had a penlight so an elder leading that part of the service could read his Bible out loud.

I thought the chosen topic was apt; Exodus 32:7-14 and Exodus 33:12-16 describes an honest conversation Moses had with God. Moses argued with God, and talked Him out of destroying a nation He had rescued from the Egyptians and a life of slavery because they were so ungrateful, wayward, and stiff-necked.

But the kick-in-the-pants verse for me was out of Matthew 15:8-9, "These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men."

Ouch.

How easily distracted I am away from God's heart. I tend, sometimes, to focus on what I think is expected of me from others as a Follower of Christ, rather than what the Bible clearly teaches in the Old Testament and in the example Jesus set.

"Follow Me," he said. Not others and the way they think and the rules they make.

Sometimes I think that God became man in the form of Jesus because He understood that life is confusing, people are confusing; people are sheep needing to be herded and led. In His compassion He seemed to say, "Okay, my beloved children. THIS is what I want you to do, THIS is how I want you to love me, THIS is how much I love you.” His Way, His example to live and be, is clear in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Why do I forget that? Darkness descends and fights with the flickering light in my spirit.

Our pastor asked two questions, both of which I pondered: "What is hardest for you in your life to trust God in?" and "At the end of your life, looking back over the years, what would you change in your walk with God?"

The nitty gritty is that I struggle with trust in general. I resist trusting people, and I guess that brings me to trusting God. What would I change? For a start I’d be less stubborn in hanging onto my own "safe" way of doing things.

As the service ended, we sang a hymn with older and younger voices raised, no electric keyboard, and we prayed. Afterward we mingled and laughed about how there may not be hot water for instant coffee or teabags. However it was a subdued crowd--not because there was no power, but because we each recognized something in us that we struggle with, and that we are all on the same journey.

Then the lights came on.

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