Mother's Day weekend

[Paris MkVI]

Permit me to share with you what God did.

I was directing Sunday (Mother's Day) so I planned to come in Saturday as usual to do pre-service prep.

I got up Saturday morning feeling physically bad - really bad. I will spare you the details. I knew I would need to "suck it up" and go in anyway - one of my other directors was out of town, and the other two were already committed to serving in other tasks, including managing the DVR-delayed video venue feed in Auditorium 2.

I finally got to the church about noon. It took five hours to complete what normally takes less than two hours. I had to go backstage and lay down about three or four times. Fell asleep for about 40 minutes one of those times. That's just how awful it was.

At this point, please don't think this is a "woe is me" story - this is a "How Mighty is He!" story.

Once I completed prep, I decided to double-check that the Auditorium 1 A/V feed into Auditorium 2 was working properly.

It wasn't.

Sound was fine, but no video.

OK, I knew I had worked in one of the A2 equipment racks about a month ago. (I moved a power conditioner at the top of the rack with a front pull-out light that prevented the rack door from closing properly. I swapped it down one rack space with another piece of gear.)

So I said to myself, "Self, maybe you reconnected incorrectly. Check your connections."

Short version - in the process of doing this, I was so exhausted and mentally dysfunctional I was multiplying errors and not seeing what I was doing. I was unable to correct the problem.

After about two hours of this, I had to go lay down again. I prayed. I said to the Lord, "God, I need your help. I cannot figure this out, and I cannot do this without you anyway. Please forgive me for thinking I can." This is the time He let me sleep a while.


While I rested, the Holy Spirit said, "Call Bill." Bill is a member of my community group and works for the company that performed our install. He is an excellent technician and superb installer/craftsman, in addition to being a licensed electrician. He's also a wonderful Godly man and a good friend.

A long story, I know. Forgive me.

The thing I had in mind was reversed H and V connections on an RGBHV-to-S-Vid converter. I had already tried that though, an no luck (not realizing I had accidentally at that time created another in-rack error that masked the issue.)

So I got up and called Bill, asking about the usual cable color conventions on the H and V connectors. He filled me in, and I went and looked again.

That's when I saw (for the first time) the cables were CLEARLY labeled "Horizontal" and "Vertical". Just how messed up was I? They were in fact reversed. When I went and corrected them, I saw that my arm also pulled out an electrical connector by accident, which had masked my initial attempt to correct this by shutting off another unit in the rack. I plugged it back in, repeated the test, and voila! All was well.

I stopped and prayed again right then and there, thanking God for His Grace, Forgiveness and Love.

But God wasn't done making things right for me.

The next morning (Sunday) I got up feeling much better. I got ready and went to the church early to be engaged in final rehearsal items for the live events we had going on in service. One of these live items needed audio support in the form of a pre-recorded fanfare.

Which I had left on my thumb drive at home.

Which I had know about for weeks and continually forgot.

I called my bride and asked her to bring it when she came, which she did.

Short version - we got rehearse with it and it went smooth as glass.

I still carried a powerful sense of His teaching about my helplessness without Him. Prayer before service with the team consisted largely of acknowledging His Authority and Power and our need for His total leadership and our total trust and submission to Him.

The whole weekend was not exactly a shining example of my leadership and preparation.

But it was an amazing example of His Perfect Love, Grace and support.

Mother's Day services went flawlessly. Smooth as glass. Like clockwork.

But not because of me.

God could have said, "Check the cables again". But He said, "Call Bill". Bill's answer wasn't even the actual issue, but it made me reach outside myself, accept I did not have all the answers, and take a closer look.

God wanted more than just fixing the issue. He wanted to re-teach me a lesson.

Father, I received it! Thank you for reminding me, ever so Gracefully, that without You I am lost. Without You, I have nothing. When I am weak in myself I can be strong in You.

It is so wonderful to hear from the Father! So wonderful to be protected and covered by Him, supported by Him! Thank you God, for filling in all my many gaps!

[[Admin] osborn4]

Thanks for sharing that great story. It's too bad sometimes He has to make us so weak for us to acknowledge where our Strength really comes from.

But I've been hit by God's 2x4 often enough to know that sometimes it's necessary.

[FlamHappy]

God is by far and away, the best tech there is.
He created the universe so H and V cables. No sweat for the King.

To think I ever did what I do (network tech) without him was just foolishness.