Addicted to Power

Maybe some of you understand where I’m coming from, but I intended to do a fast. I have gained several holiday pounds. I have a doctor appointment coming up, and I want to make sure I’m where I need to be. So, I thought a fast would be a good idea.

I intended to fast from food.

I did not intend to fast from power.

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Inigo Montoya

It seems like we’ve become power hungry. As Inigo brilliantly stated (in regard to a much different word, of course), I’m not talking about power in a corporate or political sense. I’m talking about legitimate power.

On Christmas Eve, we experienced some things that really weren’t a big deal and really were. First, I do not recall a true white Christmas in the South. We had to move to Montana to have that. That was pretty cool, indeed. It means a lot to my family, particularly my wife. Next, we had a power outage. No big deal, right? The power went out around 10:10 PM. I reported it as quickly as possible and indicated I thought it could have been a blown transformer since we heard a boom. I also hoped that information would help speed up the process of restoring power. We keep the house cooler in the winter anyway, so the first night was truly no big deal.

Day 2, Christmas, began with frequent checks on the KUB website to see how things were progressing. We did not have a time estimation, so we had to wait and check the website. We had lots of delirious fun. We laughed. We napped. My kid gamed. Our Christmas dinner consisted of McDonalds—not my first choice but definitely grateful for warming food. My clever reporting did little to no good because we ended up waiting about 26.5 hours before power restored.

I mentioned we keep it cooler in the winter. We do, and normally, that’s fine. 46 degrees is not fine. No, I’m talking about INSIDE the house. Christmas Day happened to be one of, if not, the coldest days in 2020. It got down to the teens, perhaps lower. Believe it or not, we managed to stay pretty warm. We huddled up in our bedroom with sleeping bags, every blanket we could find, layers upon layers of clothes, and our pets.

Then, around 12:40 AM on 12/26/20, the magic happened. We had power!

I failed to mention our heat is electric. Our backup heat is also electric. I got our three backup radiant heaters going as well as our central unit, and thank God, the temperature began to rise!

When you are without power after having it, you really have time to think about how addicted to it we really are.

This kind of power may be the most used and perhaps least appreciated until you don’t have it. How many times are you grateful the lights turn on when you flip the switch? How many times are you grateful when you select a channel on the remote and watch a program? How many times are you grateful the coffee maker actually does its thing? Or how about the microwave? Mickey D fries used to be the thing. Cold Mickey D fries? Not so much. As our lunch crew in Troy used to say: You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit! Me personally, I don’t really give power a lot of credit or thought.

I’m super grateful for the experience. I prayed a lot. I prayed for the neighbors, for the elderly, for the homeless, for the workers, for the church, for the community, for our friends and family, for the sick. I prayed for power restored and comfort, too. I think power is one of those comforts we don’t really think much about until it’s gone. I didn’t really truly how addicted I personally am. There’s an old hairband song, “Don’t Know What You Got Till It’s Gone” by Cindarella. Well, for me, it’s true.

I am praising the Lord today for the flips of switches that meet expectations.

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