No Charge, No Power

A few years ago I traded my gas and electric lawn equipment for battery-powered tools. I loved them, until the batteries wore out.

No big deal, I thought. I bought a new battery and got back to work. But within a couple of weeks, it started dying on me. I'd be halfway through the yard and the blower would just quit. So I set the battery on the charger, swapped in the backup, and finished the job.

The next weekend, I grabbed the new battery, fully charged and ready to go. A few minutes in, the blower died again.

I was ready to throw that battery in the trash. Then a thought stopped me: What if it isn't the battery? What if it's the charger?

It was the charger. The battery was fine. It had never been getting a charge in the first place.

No charge, no power. It's that simple.

I think I'm a lot like that battery. I run down fast. I fall short of the person I want to be. The good things I want to do start to feel like heavy lifting. And too often I find myself asking, "What's wrong with me? Why am I so impatient? Why am I so selfish? Why do I resent serving other people?"

But that battery taught me to ask a better question: Am I actually getting charged? Am I expecting spiritual power without ever plugging in? And are the things I rely on to recharge me capable of doing it at all?

I don't think I'm alone. Many of us are spiritually worn out. We're short-tempered. We mean well but can't seem to follow through. There could be plenty of reasons for that, but one might be as simple as this: we aren't connected to the source.

Jesus put it this way: "I am the vine; you are the branches... apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). Just like my battery, a branch has no power to produce on its own. It must be connected to the source.

So here's the hard truth. Another binge-worthy series won't recharge your soul. Neither will another round of golf, another game on TV, another vacation, a new car, or more hours at work. Those things aren't bad. They just aren't chargers.

If you want spiritual strength, you have to plug into the One who gives it. Open your Bible. Pray. Show up at church. Try fasting. These are the charging stations of the spiritual life.

Maybe the problem isn't you. Maybe the problem is that you've been plugged into something that was never going to charge you. Plug into God. You might be amazed at how much power flows through you when you're actually being charged.

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