December 1 – “Light”

I went to the eye doctor today for a follow-up to the cataract surgery I had back before the storm.  I guess I was a little late making the appointment.  He said my eye is as "fine as it's going to get."  Which means that eye will be about 20-25 from now on, I guess.  That's a lot better than it was before the surgery.  But I admit I'm disappointed.  I thought this bionic eye thing would be perfect.  Not so much.  It's actually pretty good during the day, but at night or in a dim room the vision gets worse.  So that means I don't need glasses when I'm in the light, but I need help seeing when it gets dark.  Wow.  What a lesson.  1 John 1:5-7 says it all.  "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."   We stopped for lunch at Olive Garden.  Chris has the minestrone soup that she loves.  I had lasagna.  At least it looked like lasagna.  It had the cheese on top and the tomato sauce around it.  But when I cut into it, it was teeming with that white cheese that they use to make manicotti.  Now, I like manicotti.  But today I wanted lasagna.  And today my lasagna tasted like manicotti.  It was an odd feeling.  Looked like one thing on the outside, but tasted like something else underneath.  Ouch.  There's another lesson.  Jesus nailed the religious establishment in Matthew 23:27.  "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean."   After a few Christmas shopping stops, we went straight into Galveston rather than heading for Omega.  We had to go by Seaside and pick up the empty Ozarka water bottles.  Delivery is tomorrow at our house.  We got the bottles, went to the house, picked up the mail, checked out the new electric meter – yes! – and left to look for a mailbox.  Did you notice something missing in that last sentence?  Yep.  We forgot to leave the bottles on the porch – the whole reason we went into town.  Fortunately, the mailbox was just a few blocks from the house, so we went back and dropped them off.  How come it was so easy to lose sight of our primary goal for the trip?  OK, lesson time.  That's not how I want to live my life.  Philippians 3:13 says, "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."      So did I forget to mention that the first step in the process of actually rebuilding has occurred at our house?  That's right!  The electrician showed up sometime over the holidays and installed a new meter, box, and even a few plugs.  Something new (and high and dry) is hanging on our house.  Reconstruction has officially begun.  Except … it's not hooked up to the power lines coming from the transformer pole.  I looked up on our roof.  The transformer lines are right there, curled into a very pretty circle.  And the wire from the box is curled into that same circle, just about a foot away from the power source.  So close, yet so far away.  Now we have to wait for Centerpoint Energy Company to come hook them together.  Only then can real work begin.  Only then will power actually reach our house once again.  Available power.  Powerless until hooked into the source.  Sounds familiar.  Acts 1:8 says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."   Father, forgive me when I try to be different on the outside than I am on the inside.  Help me be real.  Help me as well to keep focused on you alone, no matter what my circumstances look like.  Please keep me tied into that incredible power of the Holy Spirit.  I can't live without it.  And keep your light strong and powerful around me.  And in me.  Amen.