"Work In Progress"

My last position at the cement plant in Calera was electrical and instrumentation trainee.  It took sixteen years to get it, but I was finally doing a job I enjoyed.  I had a machinist background, but I would have never gotten that position.  I was too far down on the seniority totem pole.

I heard some interesting tales while working the kilowatt crew.  It seems that an electrician, Hamm, was returning from the north substation of the plant.  He saw two men operating a drilling machine.  The federal government mandated that the cement plant harness the dust, clean the air, and build aqueducts to control the flow of water used to cool machinery.

Hamm interrupted the men who had just engaged a drilling rig  to dig the aqueducts.  Hamm said you cannot drill there, stating that the main electrical line that furnished the plant was located underneath the drill.

The two educated rednecks shut the drill down, retrieved some electrical schematics, and told Hamm that there were no electrical lines there.  Hamm said all right and returned to the electrical shop to drink coffee.

Hamm entered the mill room when suddenly there was a loud boom and the cement finish mills slowed and went silent.  In fact, the whole plant shut down.  The sonic boom shook tons of dust down in the mill area and covered Hamm.

When Hamm got to the electrical shop, coffee drinking electricians were scurrying like rats on a sinking ship.  They were oblivious to the real reason the plant went down.

As Hamm poured a cup of coffee, Snuffy, the electrical foreman, told Hamm there was no time for coffee that plant lost power and thought that the substation blew a transformer.

Hamm said there was no need to be in a hurry.  Snuffy was bumfuzzelled.  Hamm said the contractors drilled into the main power line.  All the electricians loaded in and onto the electrical truck and went to survey the situation.

Sure enough, there were two men in the state of shock standing beside a huge hole.  They had walked way from the drill to pour themselves a cup of coffee and let the drill run on automatic.  Otherwise, they would have been killed.

Snuffy asked the pale and trembling men if Hamm told them that they were drilling on top of the main line.  They say he did, but the schematics did not show it.  Snuffy said there were no plans and that Hamm was a young electrical when helped put the line there in 1948.  They should have listened to the voice of experience instead of relying on a set of electrical schematics.

Aaron, my youngest son, worked with Culpepper Electric in Demopolis.  Most every evening he would say that he could not understand why more houses did not burn in Demopolis.  When I asked why, he said that customers would want larger breakers or fuses for their electrical control boxes.  Customers would say they need a thirty-amp to replace a twenty-amp because the twenty-amp kept blowing.  Well, if a twenty-amp is blowing, here is your sign.  There is a reason it is blowing.  Increasing the amps multiplies the problem and increases the chance of fire.

I am reminded of two coon hunters from Arkansas.  One night they blew a fuse in their old pickup truck.  Noticing that a twenty-two rifle cartridge is about the same size as the fuse, they replaced the fifteen-amp fuse with the twenty-two cartridge.  Instead of repairing the problem, they intensified the heat to the shell that discharged and shot the driver in his private area.  They had a difficult time explaining it in the emergency room.

Do you realize that if we knew everything about ourselves that God wanted to change, we would blow our circuit breakers?  We cannot handle knowing how God sees us all at once.  He is still working me.  I am a work in progress.



Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”  There is a moment of surrender and a process of surrender.  The moment of surrender is that moment of faith that happens in an instant of time. The process of surrender is a lifelong, crucifying of the will of the flesh.

The will of the flesh is an ugly ogre.  It is a monster that lurks in the shadows and has lackeys that put poison our hearts.  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man (Mark 7:21-23 KJV).