Do you see the power?

Gas Can Light

          Do you ever feel powerless? Like you are not in control of your own life? Like you are in this mundane cycle each day and you don’t have the power to escape? We are becoming slaves to our worlds and societies here on this Earth. We are missing the power of God in our lives and ignoring his ability to change us. If we make God our master, instead of our careers, money, or even humankind, we will start to see the power in our lives. 
          When I think of a place to get away and clear my head, I think of the ocean. The lush sound of the waves crashing as the sun glints off the smooth water. I can feel God’s power as I stand at the lapping waves touching my feet. Are you able to see God’s power throughout your day? His power can be found everywhere. It is in the waves of the ocean and the crisp colors of the fall leaves. It is found in a newborn miracle baby and the laughter of a child. If you seek God’s power, you will feel your energy fill up, instead of allowing your daily grind to deplete your heart. 

​          I can feel God’s power when I take something that a person wanted to throw into a landfill and make it look beautiful again. It brings power into my heart to do more good and save more items from littering the Earth. It gives me energy when people like what I saved and want to use it in their homes.
            Last year about this time, I was feeling pretty low. I was running on fumes as I worked my full-time job and tried to work on projects. The energy wasn’t there. I tried to find motivation as I walked around the barn to see what I could fix up to sell at Christmas time in my family’s Christmas tree store. On a shelf, I saw these two old-time gas cans that had a similar shape to them. One was red and one was blue. As I pondered what I could do with them, it was like a light bulb went off. “I could make them into lamps”, I thought. 
            Off to Lowes I went to get the lamp kits and light bulbs for my project. First thing I did was cleaned out the gas cans. I was fortunate that there was not too much rust found on them, but the spots that were there, I lightly sanded before washing them. Just a bit of soap and water did the trick. I clear coated them to seal in those weathered spots and drilled a hole near the bottom for where the wire would come out. Now, of course Lowes did not have a black lamp kit like I had wanted. The gold it came in did not go so well. Instead, I spray painted the light bulb socket a matte black. As that dried, I fed the wire through the can and secured the light bulb socket to the opening of the gas can. 

          I was shocked that my idea actually worked out! The bulb I chose looked like gas spewing out the top and I thought it looked so neat. There are so many ideas that run through my head, I feel empowered when one of them comes to life. 
          Jeremiah 10, verse 12 says, “God has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by his wisdom and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens.” God gave his power to provide all the energy we need to complete what he has before us. I pray every day that God can take my many ideas and breathe them to life, just like he did with this Earth. If you ask Jesus each day to guide you and for God to give you the power you need, you will start to focus on the blessings in your life, not the mundane.  God has the power to make anything happen in our lives. We need to keep faith and be open to accept these gifts from the heavens.