Full battery
I was so engrossed in making an important report for the office that I forgot to charge my laptop in time. So when the battery drained, I can only cry out in frustration because I was unable to save a part of that report.
I’ve been watching a movie in my mobile phone and didn’t notice that the battery level was running low. When I remembered I had to make a phone call to my daughter, it conked out just when I needed it!
In my pilgrimage to the Holy Land two years ago, my digital camera ran out of battery when I wanted to document the dungeon-like area in Caiphas’ house where Jesus was said to have stayed alone for the night before being dragged to Pontius Pilate for judgment. Bummer! That was an emotional place for me and I was unable to have my own photo while there!
In this fast-paced world, it’s almost everyone’s concern to keep the batteries of their electronic gadgets always charged. We even have an extra battery in tow because once the batteries drained, it’s like our day is incomplete.
But do we also regard with the same level of importance the charging and recharging of our spiritual batteries? Frankly, it should even be of higher level than the worldly gadgets we have.
We always want to stay connected through mobile phones, instant messages, Facebook, Twitter, etc. but you know the best life possible to be lived on earth is to continue being connected with God’s Word.
Knowing God through His Word in the Bible, and coming before His Presence to pray, talk, meditate, reflect or just be silent are ways to fully charge our spiritual batteries.
We’re always in danger running low on our batteries when problems come and we struggle with many difficulties. Our spirits are downcast. We become frustrated, disappointed and anxious. To some people who can’t take their burdens anymore, suicide is their answer.
Too bad. When our spiritual batteries ran low because we are struggling with our problems, we plug them back! Time to recharge!
Unless our lives are recharged, our minds are renewed, and our souls are fed—we will at some point during each day cease to work correctly, like a dead cell phone, a useless digital camera or a powerless laptop.
In Romans 12:2 (New Living Translation), we are reminded: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
I was driving out one night to pick up my daughter. Suddenly I realized I didn’t have my driver’s license with me. And night of all nights, there was a police checkpoint up ahead. A policeman asked me to stop and before he can ask for my license, I pleaded to him to let me pass because I had to rush my daughter to the hospital. He let me go.
I was supposed to be happy because I escaped the penalty but I felt so bad that I called my daughter and told her I couldn’t pick her up anymore. I headed back home.
I told my daughter the entire story, even if it shamed me as a mother because I want her to realize that a lie is lie. I even told her I will go to confession for this. And I really did the next day.
Tsk… tsk. I know I still have much work to do to gain God’s favor. I am far from perfect, but still a work in progress. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
As long as are breathing there are still weaknesses in us that need to be pruned. That’s why we need to keep our spiritual batteries full charged and renew our minds to think of heaven more than the world.
Being sorry for our sins, being humble, and coming before God to ask for forgiveness are some ways of recharging our spiritual batteries. I know that if I continue to accumulate my wrongdoings, one day I will just fall flat on my face like a battery-drain cell phone—useless and empty.
The One who wants to call us and use us is God. It is our Lord that is faced with an “out of power” or “unusable” signal from us.
We can’t miss all the benefits of His Word in our lives each day. It’s the best charging our spirits need. Didn’t Jesus say it in Matthew 4:4—“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”?
Today I’m less judgmental, less proud and less self-absorbed. I’m more patient, more loving, more considerate, more prudent and more giving. But all these came to be not by my merits but by God’s grace. And I know what God wants me to be because I read His Words and try my darn best to follow them. That’s spiritual charging.
Keep your spiritual batteries full charged, too. It’s the stairway to heaven.
