Power lines – 5 July 2010

I can quickly call to mind the number of prayer collection books that have influenced me over the years.  One of the ones that I have enjoyed the most as an adult is by an author called David Adam.  He has published several collections of prayers in the Celtic Christian tradition.  In 1992 he published a collection of prayers called ‘Power Lines’.  The introduction to the book contains an excellent modern parable.

When David arrived as a Priest at a parish in the North Yorks Moors in the mid-1960s, many people still remembered the coming of electricity to those moorland dales.  One house still did not have mains electricity because the owner refused to have the power lines on their land.  They made the choice and excluded themselves. Another elderly lady had electricity installed in her house, but when the meter was read, the amount used was very low.  She assured the meter reader that she used her electricity every day.  A new meter was installed, but with much the same results. It was during a conversation with her that the secret came out. “Why, I use it every night, and sometimes in the middle of the night. It is a most useful thing to have when you come into the house in the dark. You can put it on until you light your candles.”

Many of us have relationships with God that are like that, don’t we?  Mine certainly is often like that.  We don’t completely exclude God from our lives; we don’t refuse to have him on our land.  However, we only tap into him when we feel the need of him and then we push on in our own power.  The question is, of course, why would you want to work in the candle light of your own strength when you can be illuminated by the mains power of God’s presence?

Over the next four days I want to offer some reflections on how we can tap into the power lines of God’s glory in the midst of our busy lives.