I was living with my husband and two young daughters in Ghana, West Africa, in the capital city of Accra, during a country-wide drought. The city was powered by a hydro-electric dam which had a dwindling resource of water as the sky had stopped raining. The government managed this problem by having rolling blackouts, or as Ghanaians referred to them, “light off.” Every other day we would have light off. Those with means had generators, but there was also a fuel shortage, so that was no guarantee.
Our family learned to cope with the power outages. Knowing they were scheduled helped us use electricity when we could and power up all our battery-operated devices or do the things that didn’t require power, such as visiting neighbours, on alternate days without power. This sounds like a great plan of action, but it was never that tidy, and the “surprise” power outages were outnumbering the planned outages. Light off would happen in the middle of work or while in the bathroom or while reading in the evening. We would never know for how long; could be hours, could be days. An unscheduled light off lit a fuse of frustration within me and if our walls weren’t made of concrete block I had every temptation to bang my head against one.
I was consistently caught off guard, but my Ghanaian friends seemed to take it all in stride. While I was busy reacting, they would seamlessly carry on in the dark. The only time I witnessed any frustration was when Ghana was playing football at the African Cup they were also hosting. Crowds gathered around small TVs hosted in lean-tos to take in this historic moment. The power flickered and there was a mild groan, but when the power came back on quickly, there was a loud cheer as if Ghana had scored a goal. Or so I thought until Ghana did score and the cheers were thunderous.
It was by observing my Ghanaian neighbours that I learned I had the polarities reversed in my heart. I had come to Ghana with the expectation that electricity would and should be accessible to me at all times. When this expectation was consistently unmet, I reacted with ingratitude. I was put out and sour and made it known to those in my vicinity who, it should be noted, were experiencing the same reality differently.
Instead of groaning at light off, would it be possible to cheer for light on when it came? This meant a change in my wiring, this meant seeing what I had always taken for granted as a gift. This clearly didn’t come easy, but it seemed worthwhile to practice.
I started to practice gratefulness for moments when we had access to power, rather than begrudging the moments we were without. Time might still be used constructively when the power was on, and creatively when it wasn’t.
In this new posture, I discovered the gifts of light off, one of which was relational. There are very few “productive” things one can do in the dark. With friends and family, there was more good conversation and time for story-telling. With our church in Ghana, the worship didn’t stop just because the power was out, there was singing and preaching and encouragement. With our kids, games by flashlight. In our marriage, without going into details, we had a lot of fun together, wink. We can look back and consider those light off moments as some of the most meaningful moments with friends and family and yet our most deprived of amenities.
When we returned to Canada, the first time I flicked a switch and there was electricity or turned a tap and there was water, I was overjoyed. Fifteen years later, I’m still delighted that the lights and taps consistently respond to my bidding.
This experience was the first flicker of the importance of gratefulness. I’ve been guilty of saying I wish everyone could spend a couple of years living in a different culture to shake us out of our complacency, entitlement, and ingratitude, but that would be me trying to manipulate the external circumstances. I think, rather, we can apply certain truths to our lives, wherever God has placed us, to arrive at the same conclusion. That is, a practice of gratefulness can rewire the reversed polarity of our hearts and help us live more fully.
Challenge: Can you recall a specific situation in your life that drew you to a deeper understanding of gratefulness? What were the gifts you discovered?
In Everything 