Wiring Life

 August 25, 2021

DIY home improvement projects rarely go as planned, especially if the home is 1850’s vintage. After laying. A new floor in the millstone room, we figured it was high time we had a couple outlets on the inside wall. It’s 20 feet long, with nary a place to plug anything in. A thick carpet can hide an extension cord, but hardwood not so much. Installing outlets is pretty simple; what could possibly go wrong? I was to find out.

The first outlet wasn’t too bad. I was able to drill through the bedroom wall and run a short line from the bedroom outlet to the new one I installed on the other side in the back room—pretty straightforward. Tonight’s project wasn’t quite so easy. Our back room used to be a porch; the inside wall is made of old wood lap siding. Sometime in the past, perhaps when the porch was enclosed, the bottom board was cut short, leaving about a three inch gap between the board and the floor. When the room was originally wired, they just ran the Romex along the gap, tucking it in wherever they could. It looked like a simple connect from the outlet at the end of the wall to the new outlet we wanted in the middle. Silly me!

Turned out, the line running along the bottom of the siding wasn’t connected to the intended supply outlet. The power was coming from somewhere else, so instead of that simple connect, I had to remove the entire unit, since it was the old style metal box that wasn’t big enough to house the new line I needed to put in. The wall had to be cut out larger and the box replaced. When I ran the new line, I discovered that there wasn’t enough room behind the siding to accommodate the depth of the box. Not having a shallower box, I had to drill out the beam behind the siding to make it fit. What should have been an hour’s job took about seven. 

Fortunately, I have the tools I needed. The floor was littered with them—screwdrivers, a drill, impact driver, plunge cutter, hammer, pry bars, pliers, wire tools, work lights. 

All this is a picture of life. Life doesn’t always run as we expect; there are unseen obstacles and hidden snares. Without the right tools, it becomes pretty hopeless. Even with them, perseverance is required. God has given us the tools we need for life; Peter tells us that “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” —2 Peter 1:3 

We have the Holy Spirit, the Holy Scriptures, the fellowship of believers; we lack no tool for the job of life. The only possible lack would be in our determination to finish the job, no matter what. God has given us all we need, but it is our job to persevere. 

My wiring job was tougher than I expected, but with the right tools and some determination, the job is finally done. Life too, can get tough, but God has given us what we need, if we will simply refuse to quit. Jesus didn’t quit; I won’t, either.