My son was travelling overseas last month and misplaced his laptop charger. This meant that, of the small number of earthly belongings he was carrying, his laptop was now just extra weight with no benefit. We all know what the problem is, having an incredibly useful piece of technology losing its power becomes completely useless! We can sometimes feel this way, powerless, not knowing how we can fulfill our life’s purpose. This need for power to fulfill design and purpose is not just a phone or laptop issue.
All of humanity has been designed with purpose, and like a laptop, we need power to steer away from feeling like we’re ‘extra weight with no benefit’. Our theme this term is looking at the greatest challenge humanity will ever face: the worship of self. Again, we all know the problem, knowing that we are made for more but finding ourselves almost powerless to be the change we want to see in the world. How do I get beyond my needs, my hurts, my wants and my pleasures, so that I have the capacity to help others? As we reflected in the last newsletter, doing for others as we would have them do for us is a great ideal, but it is flawed because we lack the power!
Just like my son’s laptop, many of us know we need power to keep working as we were designed. Our power runs low, and we need to be plugged into the source to operate the way we were made. Jesus gave us a prayer in response to this need for power, ‘Our Father in heaven, blessed be your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. His answer to this prayer of ‘Heaven on earth’ is you and me being in a relationship with God, our true power source, so we can truly live for others and not just for ourselves.
Peter Chase
College Chaplain • Pastoral Care
