It's A Small, Small World

 In this season of heat, storms, and power outages, it seemed good to pull this one out of the archives, as it's truth remains the same. 


In typical Michigan fashion, we had one of our good old thunderstorms yesterday afternoon. Chuck and I had just finished taking dinner to some church friends, going to Starbucks, (I can't go anywhere without stopping at Starbucks), and were pulling up in the driveway, when the wind started whipping and blowing leaves, dust, and tree limbs. I thought I saw Miss Gulch go riding by on her bike!

My son Kyle, and his two friends were just cleaning up in the garage from "band practice". All of a sudden we heard a revolting noise from one of their amps. It was quite funny to see three grown boys jump as high as they did. Needless to say, that noise meant that we just lost power.

It was only about 6pm, so it was still light outside, and our supper was still hot on the stove. Not so bad, so far, right? Our oldest daughter, Michelle, told us that we could spend some time at her house if we wanted to have AC and TV. So off we went to pass a couple of hours. Still not so bad.

We got home around 9pm. That's when darkness started to move in. And so did the humidity.

Between calls to Detroit Edison, Chuck and I sat at the kitchen table by candlelight, listening to the updates on the radio and talking. At one point my groom said, "This could almost be romantic if it wasn't so sticky." Gotta love him! Romantic? My legs were sticking to my chair and God forbid I would cross them, without them sticking to each other. Any fleshly contact with another human being at that moment would render us permanently stuck.

Even though I remained quite stoic, I felt sorry for myself.

I felt sorry for my dog Sylli, who I was convinced had been rendered blind by the power outage. My son Brian told me she has night vision. What?!

I even started to feel sorry for my hair. What was I going to do tomorrow if the power didn't come back? I could already feel the frizzies taking hold, and after I slept, oh my gosh....people would run from fright!! No blow dryer. No hair straightener.

What was happening to the food in the fridge? Brian said the milk had already gone bad.

I was so cold/sticky (there really is such a thing when the air temp is lower, but the humidity is high. Don't quote me but I say it's true). Anyway, I was so cold/sticky that it felt like I had bugs crawling around on my body. I know they weren't, but it sure did feel like it.

By about 11:30, I decided to pack it all in and go to bed. I'd sleep, and hopefully power would be restored in the middle of the night. As I got ready for bed I started to think about what I had been feeling. And right then and there I was CONVICTED!

I was reminded of the people that I pray for in Myanmar, who just experienced a devastating cyclone. I pray that they have found my little "Thuzar" that I support through World Vision.

I remembered the children in the food lines in Africa, who are literally starving to death, and being fed one bowl of soup each day by the mission of LIFE and James and Betty Robison.

I remembered the filthy, disease contaminated water that Ugandan children are drinking everyday. The very thing that they need to sustain life, is literally killing them.

I have been asking God to enlarge my heart, so that I might fall in love with His children who are all the way on the other side of the world. Those who are suffering and those who have followed the Lord's call to go and serve. He's been showing me that life is about so much more than what's in my own back yard. There's a great big world out there. And there are great big needs.

I've been reading stories about people who are persecuted and sometimes martyred for their faith. Yes, there ARE modern day martyrs.

There are horrors and sights and smells and pain that our pampered American eyes and ears and hearts cannot even comprehend.

God is faithful. He has been answering my prayer and breaking my heart for what breaks His. And giving me PERSPECTIVE!

I may not have had electricity last night, but my friends across the world won't have it today, or tomorrow, or the next day either.

My water is clean and clear. Theirs is dark and slimy and least of all ... deadly!

Above my head is a roof, and I am surrounded by brick and mortar. My friends across the world will be lucky if the straw huts in their village will hold through a storm. If they even have a hut.

I felt like I had bugs crawling on my skin...my friends across the world really do!

I have hope for a change when Detroit Edison turns my power back on.  

Tomorrow, my friends across the world will have no hope of things being any better this day than it was the day before.

I can replace my milk and put it back in my refrigerator.

My precious little friends in Africa will stand in lines that stretch as far as the eye can see, to get one bowl of life-giving soup, in order to make it through another day.

Our power was restored around 3AM.

Tonight...somewhere else in the world, no one will turn the power on. 

Dusk will turn to complete darkness for yet another night. 

The mosquitoes will hover. 

Hungry babies will cry.

The water will make them sick.

Mothers will hold their dying children in their arms and pray that someone will come to help. 

Lord, hear their prayer!!

Somehow at this moment, the world seems a whole lot smaller.

 "...standing firm in your faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings." (1 Peter 5: 9)

You can also help here:  Holden Uganda