No Power
January 13, 2012
In this PodCast I share a story about power in a car and in a life.
http://www.richardjlewis.com/pod/samson.mp3
No Power
A few years back my carpool pal and I were buzzing down the 91 Freeway in Southern California near Anaheim. It was his day to drive and as we visited the engine just lost power and quit. We coasted to a stop and got out to see if there was an obvious problem. There was no obvious external cause but the engine refused to restart. The car was towed to the shop the mechanic discovered a broken timing belt. Fortunately, the engine in his car was not an interference motor where valves can make contact with the pistons when the timing belt breaks, so when it failed the engine just silently lost power and quit. It was a really strange sensation one minute we were at 65 MPH and the next silently coasting with no power.
Shortly after that I got to experience something similar to this when I was behind the wheel. My wife Sue and I were driving East on Highway 40 towards Flagstaff, Arizona. I was at the wheel with the cruise control on when our car did the same thing. The engine just went silent and the car glided to a stop. I started thinking to myself where would be the best spot to pull over and how long it might take to get some help. Once the car coasted to a stop and road and wind noise were gone, I noticed the engine was still running at idle. It seems that I had not broken a timing belt after all but my wife had accidentally nudged the shifter into neutral with her knee and when the engine RPM went up, the cruise control disengaged letting us coast to a stop. It again was a strange feeling being powerless until I discovered there was still power available.
Probably one of the saddest verses in the bible is about Samson when he lost his power. Samson had accomplished many things in delivering his people from oppression but he also had allowed anger and pride into his life. His anger had resulted in the deaths of his own wife and father in law. Then in pride he revealed the secret of his strength to Delilah who took advantage of that information. In the last sentence of Judges 16:20 it says “But he did not know that the LORD had left him.” Eventually, the great man is left powerless and easily tied up and wounded by his enemies. Samson had forgotten that the true secret of his strength was not his huge muscles, but in his relationship with God. Eventually, God granted Samson one final feat of strength before he died.
Like Samson, we often put our confidence in our physical strength, health, or our financial resources. In the racing world we put our confidence in sponsors, drivers, crew members and our own mechanical expertise. We risk allowing pride to sneak in and we can soon forget the true source of our power, until it is gone – crowded out of our lives. A sad footnote would be that when Samson was captured, it was probably a huge blow to the morale of his people – their champion was no longer there to protect them. Our failures don’t happen in a vacuum. There are family members, friends and others who are also impacted.
I never want to have someone describing my life with those words “But he did not know that the LORD had left him.” Let us commit ourselves to thank God each day for His power and let us not allow anything to crowd Him out of our lives.
Judges 16:20 Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him.
Richard Lewis
Pathway Christian Cruisers, Pathway Christian Church
Riverside, CA
