I was having some friends over for Memorial Day.  Right in the middle of cooking corn…my stove quit working.

No fanfare, no smoke (thankfully), no funny smell (thankfully)…just no power.

And no reason.

I checked the fuse box.  The breaker had not been tripped.  It seemed odd that a stove, only seven years old, with which I had had no problems should just up and die.

My sweet friends offered suggestions, even to lay hands on the thing.  Fortunately, the corn was cooked enough to eat, so we tabled the discussion and enjoyed our food.

Yesterday, one of them came over and found that the silly thing was JUST UNPLUGGED!

Don’t I feel silly.

But here’s the thing.  The plug was down in a place where I could not reach it, behind the stove.  No easy way to visibly check the plug.  Perhaps not so much “silly me” as “not-so-thorough me.”

Good life lesson for me in this!  CHECK THE PLUGS!

Especially my plug into the Lord…my ultimate Power Source.

Have I been reading my Bible as I should?  Have I been praying?  Journaling?  Praising God instead of just presenting a laundry list of complaints?

But there are other plugs I need to check also.

Do any of my children seem out of sorts and out of step?  Have I plugged in with them lately?  Spent quiet time with them alone?  Let them tell me all that is going on, what they are thinking and feeling?

How about my friends?  Is there one who seems disconnected right now, either from me or from all, whom I need to reconnect with?

Are there things at my church that seem to be a bit strained lately?  People who are usually there but are not, either physically…or emotionally?

The circuit has got to be completed for the power to flow…power from God, down the conduit of me, to the people He has placed in my life.  If any parts of the circuit are broken…my parts or their parts…it just won’t happen.

Praise God that I know that HE will always keep His part of the circuit flowing toward me and all the work He has for me!

All I can do is keep plugging along (bad pun, I know, but strangely appropriate).

 Now this I know:
    The Lord gives victory to his anointed.
He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary
    with the victorious power of his right hand.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
    but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

– Psalm 20:6-7