Monday, May 4, 2009

2:30am False Alarm and A Wake Up Call

Long time no blog. Don't know if you missed me or not, but I've been in one of those moods. I know I've blogged about it before so I won't bore you with a rehashing of my "If I am not close to God, I don't have much to say" explanation.

I think Beth Moore captured it best when she wrote: "If my relationship with God is current and lively and I am continuing to see His activity and marveling at His greatness, I have something living and active to testify about... When He and I are close, I can hardly stand for someone else not to know the joy of loving Him".

So, I'm back. I have been doing my Bible Study and have gone intermittently with my prayer time. Of course I have been going to church and Sunday School, but somehow, the fresh passion the "marveling" wasn't as present.

On Sunday morning at 2:30am, the shrill sound of the fire alarm permeated our home. No smoke present, no fire visible, but the voice in the alarm kept calling out "Fire, Fire, Fire". Troy jumped from the bed and I followed within moments. We found nothing on the first floor. I suddenly realized the boys (who were asleep in our bed) might be frightened. I returned to find them laying quietly in the bed with their hands covering their ears, trying to muffle the sound of the intentionally loud and annoying alarm.

I snuggled close to them fairly certain there was no real threat of fire. I told them it was going to be okay. Then I met with the reality that I needed to lead them in prayer. Not a long drawn out verbose prayer, but a short "God keep us safe and help us trust You" kind of prayer. When we had had enough of the alarm's persistent sounding, I told the boys we would wait in my car. I grabbed a throw, a pillow and Ephraim. Carson followed behind.

I backed the car a little bit out of the garage and looked to make sure I didn't see any flames shooting out the top of the roof. A few short minutes later, Troy came to the garage door and let us know it was safe to enter. Some kind of malfunction he remedied with a 9 volt battery. It was more to me though. It was my wake up call. I had not been depending on the LORD as I usually do. I hadn't been approaching Him in humble prayer that came as naturally as breathing.

When we met with a friend for lunch later on Sunday, the boys were recounting our whole 2:30am Fire Alarm story and Carson very matter of factly said "We didn't panic, we prayed". Yep, that is what we did. That is what we should always do. Something so simple, yet sometimes too allusive because we want to make it more. I've been coming to the LORD in prayer more often on my knees lately. Asking His forgiveness for making it all more complicated then it needs to be.

I don't want anymore unnecessary 2:30am sirens waking me from my desired slumber, but I am glad for the wake up call to draw closer to the LORD, so close, that He is the first thing I think of when I am facing anything, trauma or triumph.

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