Rechargeable Batteries or
Extension Cords?
By David Drury
Your power comes from your connection.
You are powerless on your own. All of your frustrations in life come from trying to take control over things you have no power to control. And what has drawn you closer to God than anything was getting to the place where you admitted this powerlessness and went to him to get through. This is why the biggest crises of your life have made you think the most about God. This is contrary to human logic. You would think that tough times would make you run from God. Yes, sometimes people use the worst things in their lives to shut out God and the world—but over time, or many times in the privacy of their own minds, they are asking God for help.
But even after you’ve admitted your powerlessness over things you can’t control, you can drift into depending on yourself and others for strength. You forget that your power comes from your connection to Christ.
I like tools.
I’m a man, so that is nearly mandatory.
I especially like drills. Drills
are very manly. They’re like hammers in
their manliness. Except they are even
better, because they also include a little thing called “power.” When holding a power drill I can see myself
taking apart or putting together anything in my entire house. I’ve found the first task to be easier than
the second…but anyway, that’s how it makes me feel.
For years I had this wimpy little power drill
with a rechargeable battery. The bottom
of the drill would slide out and I would put it in a plug-in station where it
would charge up after it ran out of “juice” (as I always call it). That was the theory, at least. It had two problems, however. First, I would always forget to recharge the
battery when I was done with a big job.
After I was done doing some incredibly manly project for my wife, I
would toss the drill in my pile of tools and go watch football. I would forget to recharge. Then when I wanted to use it again for even a
simple little screw-turning job, it would make that depressing winding down
noise and I would have to complain to my wife about not getting the job
done. Secondly, the drill also had a
“memory problem.” You may know what I’m
talking about here if you own an older digital camera or video camera, or, if
you happen to have had this same drill I had.
Some rechargeable batteries have a “memory,” I’m told. They tell me (and by “they” I
mean, “men more manly than me”) that these batteries remember at what
point they were recharged the last time.
So if I had 75% of my power used up when I recharged the battery, then
the next time I used it the battery would begin to shut down with 25% of its
“juice” still left. Not having enough
man-smarts to understand this, nor the patience to stand for 30 minutes running
out the last bit of juice, I would recharge the battery before all its juice
was out. So, after several years using
my wimpy powerless drill, it would max out when recharging with only about 3%
of its power potential. I could lock the
gears and then manually turn the whole drill around in circles to drill in a
screw, but that’s about all it was good for—a very heavy, awkward and elaborate
screw driver.
During these days of powerless drill
problems, I would reminisce of the days when I was a little boy and my father
would go into the garage to get his power drill. He would come back with a little case of
drill bits and the most massive and simple drill in the world. It was mostly the color of plain silver
steel, as though any decorations or color would have offended its manly
manufacturer. It had only one button,
which was the trigger. No adjustments
needed. It had one speed: “Super-Manly
Speed.” All it could do was drill a hole
to
His drew its power through an extension
cord. Sure—he lost a bit of independence
because of that. He couldn’t go out into
a field far away from the house and drill things. But since 99% of the time we were in the
garage or the house with outlets everywhere, that didn’t matter. His drill—decades older than mine—worked so
well because it was directly connected to the source of power!
Are you?
Christian culture today has become largely
rechargeable. We ask people to stop in
from time to time to the church building and get their spiritual batteries
recharged. We file in,
hook up, charge up, and then head out.
We’re independent. We think this
system makes us more versatile, more able to take our faith wherever we
want. But too often we forget to
recharge. We feel worn out in nearly
every way. Our spiritual recharge memory
lets so much go in one ear and out the other.
We don’t “get as much out of” church as we used to. We don’t feel fed enough. So early in the week we hear our spiritual
battery making that depressing winding down sound.
We need to get back to the extension cord
method as Christians. We need to be directly
connected to the source of power! We may
feel like we lose a bit of independence by being so 100% dependent on Christ,
but we won’t miss it. Our independence
is only giving us headaches. We
need a simple and full-time connection to Christ. Then when we go to our churches, it’s not to
“get something out of it”… it’s to “give something to it.” And when we reach out to those around us, we
won’t be caught winding down on our own batteries. Instead, we’ll transfer the
power of Christ directly to them from the source.
Now that sounds pretty manly to me!
© 2004 by David
Drury. All Rights Reserved.
—This article is
adapted from a chapter in the 40 Days book The Fruitful Life: What Will I Be Remembered
For? by David Drury which is to be released in
February 2005. David is a pastor &
writer living in