Just as Pastor Holly Johnson was starting her Sunday morning message yesterday, the power went out. Of course my first thought was, "Did the power bill get paid?" Well, it was paid because the outage was all over. It also knocked Amazing Grace Radio off the air for several hours. Pastor Holly preached reading her notes with a flashlight and it turned out to be an excellent message and service.

Before the service I was talking with a first time visitor to the church and welcoming her. Afterwards, I spoke with her again and apologized for the power failure and invited her back to a service with the lights on. She commented how much she enjoyed everything and thought the power failure caused her to pay closer attention to the message because there were fewer distractions. I was surprised by her statement and then realized that there is clarity in simplicity. Without the electricity there was no PA system and no lights, so eyes did not wonder and ears had to remain fixed on Pastor Holly to really hear the words she spoke. We've said it before, but once again it's the beauty of simplicity.

Our daily life is so similar. We have so many distractions created by modern marvels like cell phones, email, text messaging, the internet and others, that we often can't hear God's message. That's why we need to read daily Psalm 46:10 which says, "Be still and know that I am God." "Be still" in Hebrew literally means "to let go." How often do you let go of all the distractions and really commune with the Lord? I thought the timing of yesterdays power outage couldn't have been better. But then again, the Lord knows what he's doing. The question is do we take the time to notice and listen?