October 29, 2015 (Thursday)
We had a lot of excitement at our house Tuesday. A huge garbage truck a half block away hooked the Cable TV wires connected to a pole in our back yard and the pole broke. The power lines at the top of the pole stayed in place, but the Cable TV wires pulled away the bottom half. Nothing fell to the ground, but the situation obviously needed a remedy. It needed a new pole.
Replacing an electric company utility pole weighing thousands of pounds is no small undertaking. First, the power must be turned off and that occurred at 10:38 a.m. It was off for four hours. Then the cable company, which uses the pole, did its thing, and that took another four hours. We had so many trucks around our house and down the block that it looked like a parade of work trucks in Times Square. Pictured below is a typical repair scene.
There are two pairs of wires on these poles. The highest ones carry great power. I think those were still empowered when replacing the poles. The lower pair carries a stepped-down voltage that serves nearby homes and businesses. Those wires were disconnected from power while the work was done.
My dear friend, Bobby Don Grey, used to do that kind of work. One day he was working with a pair of high voltage lines when something went wrong and suddenly 72,000 volts coursed through his body. He lived to tell about it. It was a miracle. Others have not been as fortunate. Safety is a high priority for all such workers.
I was impressed by the way the men went about their work. Everyone had a job to do, and each person seemed to know what was expected of him. Without fanfare or yelling, each person did his job, and did it well. They remained safe while doing dangerous work.
When churches work like that, with each person doing his/her job, progress in the work of the Lord takes place. I heard a great Baptist leader say one day, “The local church is not just an organization–it is an organism, but it is an organized organism!” The staff of a church makes up only a small portion of the membership, but the members all have work to do. There is a place of service for each of us. Together we all thank the Lord for the privilege of serving Him.