The photo you see is the outlet into which I plugged my Dad’s refrigerator. Since this receptacle was way in the back of the refrigerator and I had to reach my hand down a small passageway to reach it, I did not see that the outlet was damaged. I had pulled a mop out of that little passageway earlier and I had likely unwittingly unplugged the refrigerator myself, with the handle of the mop.
Dad had an adapter on the three pronged plug that made it compatible with his two-holed outlet. The lights came back on in the refrigerator and I was sure that all was well….I had discovered that my father’s refrigerator had a problem. I had prevented his food from spoiling, by plugging it back in. I love discovering new ways to serve my father. All was well…
…Until several hours later when I reached my hand under the water in the shower at which time I gave a big yelp, felt the electricity race through my body, and just about jumped out of my skin, realizing that the water had a big charge. Still though, I did not put it together that the refrigerator could possibly have anything at all to do with the shower water. All I knew was that nobody should be taking a shower in that bathroom until we got an electrician to check everything out. That meant I was going to go from Saturday night till Tuesday morning without a shower.
Even the electrician couldn’t figure it out. He did measure the current running through the metal faucets and it was pretty consistent throughout the house–120 volts. We replaced some parts of the well pump, only to discover that when the pump was completely disconnected from all power, it still carried a charge that was enough to make the electrician shout. At last I held the power meter against the faucet while the electrician flipped one breaker at the time. When he finally killed the refrigerator, the meter, at last, showed that the charge was completely gone. All the while, the charge had been carried through the water supply in the copper pipe that fed the ice maker. I had plugged the prongs into the wall upside-down and, because the outlet was toasted at the top, it accepted the incorrect insertion. I was pumping a 120 volt charge through every faucet in the house!
Of course it all came back to me then. But I just logically explained to the exasperated electrician:
“But surely this mistake would not cause me to be shocked, because, you see, I was very sincere in my service to my father.”
“But it would not really be fair for this water to shock me at the end of the day when I have spent the whole day mopping and serving and plugging in the refrigerator so that my Father would have what he wants.”
“I really thought I was doing what he would want me to do and I never realized there was a problem.”
“My motives were all good and I did not know the truth about that outlet.”
“I never even looked at that outlet in the light of day. How could I have known that it was not in conformity to the standard?”
“And there were other people there with me. They never told me that there was an issue with that outlet.”
“And, after all, I really did a good thing. I saved his food.”
You know I didn’t REALLY say these things because this line of thinking is ludicrous. No one believes that the truth about 120 volts of electricity pumping in the wrong direction will not have negative consequences just because I thought I was doing the right thing, because other people endorsed my actions, or because I had not fully examined my actions in light of scientific truth. Truth is truth. The laws of nature belong to God and they are unbending regardless of the motivation behind my related actions. Further, we really WANT the laws of nature to be unbending. If we could not count on them to be consistent, we could not use science for finding cures, inventing technology, or sending astronauts into space. We could not make traffic laws, plot routes of travel or engineer water and power systems. You get the point.
The truths of the Bible were crafted by the One who hung the stars, formed the earth, and breathed into man the breath of life. The God of nature’s truths is the God of spiritual and moral truth. The consequences of breaking His spiritual truths are just as certain as are the consequences of breaking His natural laws. Truth is truth. God is Truth. The way I plug in the refrigerator is very important, even if the outlet allows for doing it the wrong way. The way I worship and serve God is eternally important even if the religious world around me allows for doing it the wrong way.
May we all recognize the absolute nature of His truth in every realm of life.
