Power taken for granted

August 6, 2015 · 0 Comments

Dear editor:
Last summer when we were in Nova Scotia, we went down into a disused coal mine which led several hundred feet below the sea. As we followed our retired miner down the mine and were a considerable distance down the shaft, our guide turned off the lights! Suddenly we were in total, absolute darkness! After only a few minutes and what seemed to be an eternity, our guide turned the lights back on – whew – we could see again! These few moments of total darkness helped us to realize how much we take power for granted!
Many of us live and work in multi-story buildings where we have to take an elevator to get to our destination! We take all the power that is needed to make this possible for granted, that is until the power is suddenly lost as it was in Toronto last winter! We couldn’t just step into an elevator and be swiftly and comfortably carried to our floor – we had to climb several flights of stairs and even then we didn’t have power to cook our meals! Those apartment dwellers could easily identify with the retired miner’s existence! Even when we go grocery shopping, we don’t stop to think of the power that is required to bring us fresh fruit in the winter, or that makes shopping comfortable in our climate controlled buildings!
There is another area of our lives where we take power for granted – and that is the spiritual area! Because for the most part our lives are so comfortable, we take worship for granted! Pierre Burton wrote a book called: The Comfortable Pew in which he described this phenomenon. Because we are no longer living in fear as did the early church: they didn’t take their faith for granted! “They were insulted, unfairly criticized, and publicly ridiculed. Notice how many times 1 Peter alludes to this kind of persecution: 1 Peter 2:12, 15; 3:16; 4:4, 14. We can be sure that when an open confession of faith could well mean being thrown to wild beasts, burned at the stake, or killed with a sword.” Zondervan, David Faust, Faith Under Fire, p.110.
Paul in his opening chapter of his letter to the Ephesians tells them: “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms” (1:19, 20). Abundant spiritual power is available to help us with our daily lives. Ephesians 1:19: “I pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honour at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.” Get God involved! 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us: “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” (NLT)
When we read scriptures such as these, we are reminded of the fact that we CAN live meaningful lives – if we don’t take God’s power for granted! “Are you tired of shallow, self-centered surface level relationships that suck the life out of filling you up? Christ frees his people to love others, ‘deeply from the heart’. 1 Peter 1:22”, Faust, p.50
Ian Cuthbertson, the Grand Valley Church of Christ