We all ‘plug in’ to something. We get our life, our energy, our purpose from some source we tap into.   

We own a generator.  It’s very handy.  When the power goes out, we can hook the fridge and freezer up to it and not have to worry about losing our groceries.  It only has so many plugs though, so we can only power so many items with it.  And then there’s the need for fuel.  We have to constantly replenish the tank to keep the thing running.  

A generator could prove to have any number of inconsistencies (especially depending on your own watchfulness.)  They can glitch, have surges of power, spells of drought where they just cut off, or can stop working all together.  Rather finicky and a bit work intensive.  

My daughter and I were watching a television show last week and there was this sweet man who just seemed lost.  He explains that his wife of many years had passed away and she had been his whole world.  Without her he had no purpose, no life.  

This man had been plugged into her generator which cut off and left him in the dark.  Without her there, he had no source of life, light, warmth, purpose.  

We all walk around looking for plug ins.  Look at the rise of 5 Hour Energy and Red Bull.  We all need more oomph.  We find a substance that makes us feel lively and energetic.  We find a romance that makes us feel vibrant and useful.  We find a show that makes us feel a sense of belonging and distraction.  We find a job that makes us feel purposeful and proud.  We find a vacation spot that makes us feel peaceful and content.  We find….

While there may be a wonderful surge of power available to us from any of these sources, they don’t prove to be reliable generators.  They have relational glitches.  They surge us with power only to leave us feeling totally drained just minutes beyond the 5 hour mark.  They deliver us to cloud 9 only to send us crashing through the trees moments later.  And sometimes they just cut off for no discernible reason and leave us cold, lonely, hungry, and in the dark.  

There is no generator here that can fuel us consistently.  All that is temporal abides by it’s temporal nature and restrictions.  We need a power source that can deliver to us the life, energy, warmth, direction, and purpose we long for–and do that with such blissful dependability that we fear no storm or loss.  

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms….                                                         Ephesians 1:18-20

We can’t let the source of our strength– that which makes us feel alive, that which fuels us for lives that emanate light and heat and energy–be something that isn’t up for the task.  

God in Christ, the Great I AM, is the only generator big enough to fuel great, consistent, powerful lives of purpose.  To tap into any other source is to put ourselves under the strain of it’s limitations.  It is to entrust our own strengths to it’s weakness.  It is to settle for glitches and surges and seasons of darkness.  

There’s a generator that fuels with Perfection.  Plenty of plug in’s for the lot of us.  And a long history of unprecedented dependability.