Bump in the Night

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105 (NIV)

Severe thunderstorms rolled through our area of North Carolina on Monday night and early Tuesday morning. At times the lightning was so intense it almost looked like daylight was breaking ahead of schedule. Booms of thunder…wailing wind gusts…shutters flapping against the house…wind chimes that were rockin’ and rollin’…

A night with much interrupted sleep. Thankfully, I had already given my dog his Xanax, so he wasn’t too upset. But I kind of wish somebody had given me something!

Since my husband was out of town on business, both boys and the dog were sleeping with me in our king size bed. My daughter was in her upstairs room, directly above us. As the weather radio went off multiple times in the wee hours, blaring out warnings of severe thunderstorms with instructions not to go near windows because of flying debris, it occurred to me that maybe we should move into the living room.

I corralled everyone in the central location just in case we needed to make a dash down the basement stairs. News that a tornado had been spotted a few miles over in the next town was confirmation that I had made the right decision, though I hated to wake my sleeping children.

Then, click! The power went out. And except for the flashes of lightning, it was pitch dark!

Bumping into things, I made my way to the nightstand beside my bed and opened the drawer. I felt around inside, searching for a flashlight…there it was! Though the battery seemed a little low, as the light was a bit dim, it did the trick.

I could now find my way in the dark. The kids and I sat in the living room for maybe half an hour until the worst of the storm seemed to pass. Then, Madison asked me to walk her back upstairs and down the hallway to her room. It was really dark and we needed the flashlight to light our way.

The verse from Psalm 119 popped into my head. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. It had real meaning for me on this night!

We are so used to simply turning on the light switch and having instant, total brightness in our homes today. In fact, our power was out for around 15 hours or so and the entire time it was out the kids and I habitually continued to flip on the light switches throughout our house.

Of course we know nothing about living in a time period in which people actually had to read by candlelight, or find their way from one room to the next with a small lamp. How it put things in perspective!

God’s word is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path.

Just enough light to find our way in a given situation…we don’t necessarily need to see the whole room lit up in its entirety, just take our life journey one step at a time, totally dependent on the flashlight so as not to stumble in the darkness.

Lord, I know my habit is to turn on the light switch myself. I confess that I do not always use Your Word as my flashlight. In my impatience and impulsiveness, I want to see the big picture as I head down the long hallway. Help me to walk in Your Light, taking things at Your pace, in Your direction. I pray that you keep me from tripping over my own self-directed, false light. May I learn to apply Your Word in my everyday life…in every situation, so that I may stay on the path that You have prepared for me.