Unlimited Power

In the run up to Christmas Alvechurch Baptist Church hosted the WI Christmas Celebration. Two hours before the service was due to start we had a total power cut in church. Someone from the National Grid was called out who, with an hour before the service was to begin, informed us that it was a problem with the church electrics and so nothing he could do and that we needed to call an electrician. We called our electrician and knowing that it was unlikely he would make it to the church within an hour let alone fix the problem, we started to put a back-up plan into action. We changed the carols to ones which could be sung acapella and started to put hymn books out.

Not long before the service was to start, it was pointed out to me that it would go dark during the service and whilst we had candlelight for atmosphere anyway, there would not be nearly enough light for the readers to see what they were reading. I frantically began searching the church high and low for a torch, but I could not find one anywhere. In the end I had to resort to plugging my phone with its dying battery, into my laptop with the hope that  I might be able to syphon enough power to use the torch on my phone if necessary, whilst I stood at the back, taking a deep breath, preparing myself to start and still thinking about where in the church there might be a torch.

Less than ten minutes before the service was due to start and suddenly all of the lights came on in the church. I went to see what had happened and found the electrician looking almost as surprised as me! He had just reset the system before beginning to fault find and everything sprung into life! So, with restored power, we went back to plan A and hurriedly changed back our plans to how they started. As I got things ready, I passed many people who gave me a knowing smile and said something along the lines of; “looks like someone was busy praying”. I had to sheepishly reply that whilst yes, I had been praying, I was praying that I might find a torch not that all the lights would come back on!

It is a wonderful thing that God isn’t limited by what we pray, that He can and will bless us beyond what we can imagine, what’s import is just that we look to him. In fact, God often doesn’t answer our prayers the way we would, which is just as well because He sees and knows so much more than we do, and knows how to care for us. As I thought about this, I realised that sometimes I can get so focused on having my prayers answered in a particular way, that I can continue to worry and nag God, long after He’s answered by prayers in a different way because I haven’t noticed. It would be like me to continuing to look for a torch after all the lights had come on! And so I have to remember when trouble comes, I need to bend my knees and bow my head, but I also need to look up, look around and pay attention to what God is doing!