December 23 – “The Drill”

I spent the better part of today by myself.  Chris went to Bay City to take her Mom to a doctor's appointment.  I had a few "assignments" to take care of.  The proverbial trip to WalMart.  A stop by the Post Office to mail the first round of our Christmas letters and a package.  A quick trip to Target to get some packing tape for the package.  Back to the post office.  A haircut.  Office Depot for an ink cartridge.  We used up all our ink on the Christmas letters.    But most of my day was spent at our Galveston house.  I've been kind of avoiding actually doing a full day's work there, but I ran out of excuses.  So today was pull out old electrical wire day.  And I'll say up front – no, I didn't finish.  It was a lot bigger job than I thought.  It was kind of scary, too.  As I unscrewed waterlogged outlets and clipped wires and tugged and pulled and coiled, I began to notice quite a few places where the old wire was frayed and bare.  Then there were the places where two different size wires had been spliced together using only electrical tape.  Not to mention all the times one of those big staples had been nailed right through the wire.  That was my first point of revelation for the day.  I finally reached a point where I can wholeheartedly say, "Thank you, God, for Hurricane Ike."  Without the storm, and the damage, and in particular the mold, we never would have reached the point of pulling out wires.  And we never would have realized that we were living in one of the worst fire hazards on Galveston Island.    I realized something else today.  It has to do with the drill we were given right after we returned to Galveston back in September.  It's one of those rechargeable ones with an extra battery pack.  I remember charging both of them up the night we got it, and being so excited to have my "first" power tool.  And since that next day we have used that drill as our first line of action against anything that needs to be unscrewed.  And that has been a lot.  It works great.    So what's the big deal?  Well, it hit me during this fine Hanukkah season that we have a Hanukkah drill.  Hanukkah is a big deal to the Jews because oil burned in the temple for eight days instead of the one that it should have lasted.  This drill is a big deal because it hit me today that I have never used the extra battery pack.  I have never recharged the first one, either.  The drill has worked steadily at least several times a week for over three months. OK, now I'm not saying that's a miracle on the level of Hanukkah, but it is a pretty long time without being recharged.  I can't go that long spiritually without recharging.  I get flat out depressed.  Ps 51:10 says, "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."   Father, can I just ditto that verse?  Thanks.  Amen.