Stunned!

 

About twenty years ago, John T. asked me to install a couple of outlets at his house.  His house had most of the wiring overhead, so I went up into the attic to drill down through the top plate into the wall to fish down the wire.  I plugged a noisy drill into an existing outlet in the room, went to the breaker box in the garage, and turned off breakers until the drill stopped running.  I had the right breaker (or so I thought).  I went back up to the attic with my six-inch needle-nosed pliers to cut the existing wire to install a junction box and a new wire down to the new outlet.  But the instant I cut the wire, there was a fireball and a loud boom!  The wire was hot!  The pliers were insulated, so I was safe, but stunned.  Today, I have an electrical tester so that just such accidents won’t happen.  But that was back when I was younger and reckless.  I came out of the attic and found the breaker that had just tripped and turned that breaker off … the right breaker.  But there was an unintended benefit to my accident: the needle-nosed pliers had a notch burned into the cutter jaws that was just perfect for stripping the plastic covering from 12 and 14 gauge wire!  Not the best way to achieve my new stripping tool, but it worked nonetheless!  My experience reminded me of Joseph’s speech to his fearful brothers in Genesis 50:20, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”  Joseph’s brothers had sold him into slavery.  But God had a plan to rescue Jacob and his entire family.  But God had to get Joseph to Egypt and into prison in order to meet Pharoah’s butler so that Joseph could ultimately interpret Pharoah’s dreams.  And when Joseph became the second in command of all of Egypt, he was as surprised as I was with my electrical fiasco!  Hey, let the dear Lord work in your life today.  And I hope it turns out better for you than my day did twenty years ago!