Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9
It’s an official word. You’ll find the term brownout in your dictionary. Chances are, though, you already know what one is. You’ve been on the receiving end of the bad news.
Technically, “Brownout is a condition of lower than normal power line voltage being supplied by your local utility or generating equipment.” Now, the condition can be short term (like minutes to hours) or long term—who knows for how long? A power line voltage reduction of, say 8 to 12%, is considered a brownout.
And how is a brownout different from a blackout? When the power goes down entirely, you get to watch your TV set in the dark. It means all the electricity is off. That’s a blackout.
But both are bad news. With brownouts, computers do weird things. Motors will slow down and overheat. Voltage regulators sing, and when the voltage does come back to normal, things sizzle. An old proverb goes, “Protection doesn’t cost, it pays”—something we often realize too late to do anything about.
If you’re a follower of Guidelines, you understand that I don’t attempt to moralize everything, yet I’m reminded that Jesus gave truth in the framework of real life—the woman who lost a coin, a son who took his inheritance and skipped town, the woman whose self-respect had become badly tarnished, who drew water in the middle of the day rather than early in the morning when it was cool, the little guy, Zaccheus, who climbed a tree to see if Jesus was coming.
I’ve been thinking about you who listen, who often write, who send e-mails telling me about your struggles. You’re just not getting the power through the lines coming from above—you’re suffering from spiritual brownouts. The 110 volts is running at about 70 volts, or the 220 has dropped to about 170.
That’s the way it is with your spiritual life. Now, spiritual brownouts are the equivalent of an eight-cylinder car running on six cylinders—jerking and loping unevenly, getting hot on the upward pull, burning valves, threatening to burn up the whole engine.
So, what causes spiritual brownouts? Overwork and undernourishment. Too much time in the sports section, not enough in the Word. Pushing yourself day after day, thinking, “I’ll get caught up tomorrow,” and when tomorrow comes, it catches up with you.
John Wesley, the father of 22 children, says history, was also a circuit-riding preacher who insisted on getting up at 4 o’clock in the summer, 5 in the winter, and starting his day with an hour of study and prayer. The more he had to do, the earlier he rose to first ponder and pray about the pressures of life.
So, what do you do when you face a spiritual brownout? There are some things which only God can do, other things which only you can do. Of one thing you can be certain. The flow of spiritual energy which comes from the powerhouse above remains constant. It’s the ebb and flow of life here—the pressures and overload—which pull down the spiritual voltage, and you are the only one who can find quiet time to be with God, put your nose in the book and take God’s Word to heart, and the only one who can clear the fog out of your thinking as you focus on God and His purpose for your life.
A final thought. The sun is always shining up there, day in and day out, provided you go high enough—high enough to avoid the fog, the smog, the clouds, and the haze. It’s true with God too. So, don’t be content to live with brownout faith when you can be connected directly to the powerhouse of heaven.
Resource reading: Psalm 116:1-19
