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The installation of the church’s new solar system on the Parish Hall wraps up this week. That work has been entertaining for me, as the bulk of the roof work was accessed right outside my office window. Every few minutes last week, there was banging or drilling, and every ten or fifteen minutes, a solar panel was handed up from the ground to someone standing on the roof. Every time, there was a flash of blue light reflected across my office. At the back of the building, they have installed the battery system and the connection point to our building. The battery is bigger than I thought it would be when reading the dimensions on paper. I suppose it has to be big; it can power most of the building for most of the night.
For those who don’t remember the letter we sent in January, the Vestry elected to install a solar system on our building to combat rising energy costs. Our electric bills (like yours) continue to grow, especially with winters like the ones we've had over the last few years. This solar system is expected to save us more than $350,000 over its lifetime and provide additional resiliency during power interruptions. The system will also mean we use less fossil fuels and benefit our neighbors through our participation in a program that sells power stored in our batteries back to the grid during peak usage. When the Island experiences its next lengthy power outage, we can also invite our neighbors to stop by for heating/cooling, internet, and to charge their electronics. It’s a great addition that strengthens our role in our community in so many ways.
Solar has been criticized for working only when the sun is shining, which is true of traditional systems. With the new batteries, it can do a whole lot more, long after the sun has gone down or when the sunlight is not reaching the ground. Batteries are not a perfect solution to our world’s energy issues, and there are concerns about the materials and processes used to make them, but pairing them with solar generation makes them a solid option for addressing environmental concerns and the growing strain on electrical grids. It will take an array of responses and new ideas to address all the concerns we face, and I don’t pretend that our system is a perfect solution, just a good one for us and for our needs. This technology is admittedly incredible.
As you might imagine, I’ve been thinking a lot about solar energy, given the work on the parish house. I’m not reflecting on the mechanics of solar alone; I appreciate that photons in sunlight knock electrons loose from the silicon in the panels, and that those electrons can be collected and converted to electricity. That’s pretty cool science, to be sure. I’m prone to think of it in spiritual terms, and the ways in which that process speaks to the way in which God showers us with abundance as relentlessly as the sun shines.
You’ve no doubt heard or read an uplifting reminder that even when storm clouds obscure the sun, it’s still shining brightly in the heavens, and will eventually break through and shine on us once again. That is absolutely our understanding of God’s loving presence in our lives, too. God is consistently present and turned towards the world God so lovingly created. There are moments when we lose touch with God’s presence, and the storms of life temporarily obscure it. In those very real moments, God is still there, blasting away at us with a love that wants to fill us with healing and comfort. God’s love has the ability to knock things loose within us, too, which we then harness for the life and work we are called to.
Our connection to God, which we foster through things like daily prayer, weekly attendance at church, regular service to those less fortunate, and Christian community, allows us to build up a measure of reserves of God’s blessings, much like a battery stores those electrons until they can be used. When our lives are obscured by those trials and tribulations that don’t always allow us to experience the brightness of God’s presence, we can rely on what we’ve stored up to see us through. As a Sewanee person, I can tell some stories about long stretches without sunshine. One winter, we went about sixty days without sunshine. It was rough. Some periods in life are rough, too, and our batteries run low or even empty.
In those moments where that interruption goes on for long spells, we rely on others to share with us from their stores. It’s why we lovingly reach out to those who suffer and despair. We carry that holy light within us, and we can shine it on them in so many beautiful ways. We don’t replace God; we are only conduits with the ability to reach into a deep reserve of faith to help sustain and care for others. It’s still God at work. We don’t create that light; we just reflect it and pass it along. [For all the fans of the Matrix trilogy, this is a much more hopeful way of thinking of human beings as “batteries,” not powering a dystopian future ruled by our digital overlords, but storing up blessings to be shared so that we can all flourish!]
We have many sunny days in South Georgia, so I think our solar system will do a good job of what we’ve tasked it with. Every day with God is a sunny day, even when the light is temporarily obscured from our vision. God’s abundant love is always there, waiting to shine upon us and fill us, an incredible gift, to be sure.
