Pastor's Pen

A Monthly Reflection

by

Rev. Dr. Ronald F. Rosenau

Dear Friends,

When Hurricane Irene blew through our region on the weekend of August 27-28 we were fortunate to be spared much damage compared to other parts of the country which were directly in its path. For the most part we here in lower Bucks County were inconvenienced.

Our power went off at around 4am. When I woke up at around 7 I went downstairs to call PECO to find out when the power might be restored. The first thing I did was to flip the light switch so I could read the emergency number. “Duh! The power is out! What am I doing flipping the light switch?” I thought to myself. Whereupon I proceeded to pick up the phone to call, but of course, the power was out from the phone as well! “What a creature of habit I am,” I thought this time. When I finally reached PECO I heard a recorded message which explained that there were more than 100,000 households without power, that there were more than 2,500 repair personnel on the job, and that we could expect our power to return in one to two weeks!!!

“One to two weeks,” I thought, “I can’t be without power for 1 to 2 weeks! Our food will go bad, our basement will flood, plus we’ll be without television or e-mail or an internet connection!

Later that same day when the power came on, I was talking with my neighbor who observed, “Wasn’t it great to be without power. It was so peaceful and quiet for a change. No internet, no television, no radio. I just sat in my study with candles burning, thinking and reading – it was great. Then the power came back on again, and I thought, “Rats. Back to the hectic world. Oh, well. It was nice while it lasted.”

What do I take away from this experience?

First we take for granted how privileged we are. According to the journal Scientific American, more than 1/4 of the world’s population – nearly 2 billion people (that’s 2 thousand million!) do not have and have never had electricity.

Second, we benefit daily from people like those PECO workers who do hard and dangerous work to bring us the benefits of our public utilities. Thank God for their service to the common good!

Third, our lives really are too hectic, to the point where we hardly know what to do with ourselves in the absence of the background hum of television, video games, radio, MP3 players and the Internet. Why is that, do you suppose?

Fourth, it doesn’t need to be that way. Nothing is preventing us from taking a regular Sabbath from all of that noise, and, like my neighbor, find a quiet place to think, and pray, and read, and reflect on all of the blessings of life we so often take for granted. Why not try it? After all, there’s no need to wait for the next hurricane.

The peace of Christ be with you all,

Ron Rosenau,
Pastor