Power Cut or Power Surge?

In February this year, we kept hearing about the harshness of the power outages brought about by the intense storms and the natural extreme weather conditions that hit Texas. There were many questions asked, few answered, as hundreds of thousands of lives were affected.

This automatically transported me back to the mid-eighties in Communist Romania. The power cuts lasted at least three months, the winter months, as the days were getting shorter and shorter. It wasn’t because the country struggled to supply power. It wasn’t because of extreme natural conditions either or shortage of personal finances. The determined dictator leading the country, Nicolae Ceausescu, vowed to pay all the country’s debts. He exported everything he could from what the country produced and rationed everything.

How did we cope? With this inconvenience and many others, as Christians, the society’s pariah, our strength came from the Lord. We survived and thrived by reminding ourselves that God was sovereign, that leadership was there because God allowed it to be, that He had His purpose and that His good will was being carried out there and then. We led our life, memorizing God’s word and remembering His promises. God’s word was our motto.

The one promise that springs to mind now is Proverbs 15:15b ‘the cheerful heart has a continual feast.‘ How did we cope, you wonder? Cheerfully.

Yes, cheerfully. Those times provided me with some of the most special memories of my childhood and teenage years. The whole family sat together at the gas lamp light, putting on shows, competitions, church services with my younger brothers preaching in earnest voices. We would run the car during the day and make sure the battery was fully charged, so we could bring it in and connect the tape player and listen to the few tapes, while her hands never stopped crocheting or knitting,

Those evenings taught us that work was work, and rest was rest. We had to do the school homework, the chores and have everything ready for the following day before 3.30 pm. Mother would have a simple dinner already cooked, which we would serve around 7 pm. The animals were fed later, but the snow light was more than we needed. We would sledge and ski behind our house, on our uncle’s land and had to be inside before the darkness fell. The roaring fire in our terracotta stoves was warming our cheeks and hearts. And we never went to bed early. There was too much fun to be had.

How do other fellow Romanians remember this time? Many sadly, recall it with bitterness because they blamed the regime and resented the circumstances. I can still hear my neighbours swearing aloud in anger. My parents trusted in the Lord, and their godly approach turned a trying time into a blessed time. Oh yes, a cheerful heart can carry on feasting after decades.

My heart goes out to those who suffer today in Texas during these difficult time, and my prayer is for God’s provision in every way and especially for the strength to see God’s power surge amid the power outages.

About Gabriela MacBain: I was born in 1975 in Romania, the fifth of seven children. My parents were Protestants, a direct crime against the Communist regime, which pushed us to the society’s fridge. I personally loved it as conformism was never on my cards. Communism collapsed in Romania in 1989, and the church grew. Freedom is real. I moved to the UK with my work as an interpreter/translator in 2000, where I met my English husband and married in 2008. We have two daughters, and we live in a small village in Sussex, where my husband pastors two local churches. I love looking after my family, writing, walking, reading, photography, hospitality, etc. Should I add serving God? No, because that’s not one of the other things I do. That’s all that I want to do in all that I do. I am in the process of publishing my first Christian historical novel.