Monthly Archives: January 2011

The Flywheel

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Spoked flywheel

Spoked flywheel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Flywheel

A flywheel Is a mechanical device with a significant moment of inertia used as a storage device for energy. They allow for movement and motion without power. While this can be a good thing in terms of mechanics, it is less desirable when it comes to our lives.

Sometimes in life we can unknowingly become disconnected from the Supreme Power Source. In spite of this, like the flywheel, we can continue on with our usual activities often times without notice that true power has been lost. The more things that we are able to maintain in this manner, the easier it is to travel down the road of disconnection unconscious of what has actually happened. This is why habits that foster daily dependence on God are helpful because they allow us to immediately recognize that there is a disconnect occurring.

Churches can be a place of disconnection and power apart from God as well. In spite of the appearance of much activity- worship services, meetings, fellowship gatherings, service activities- if these things are done without conscious dependence upon and dedication to God they become activities done purely by momentum rather than by true Power. The problem with this is that momentum will only get you so far. The slightest bit of resistance can bring everything to a screeching halt.

This is why, though many churches appear vibrant, the are in actuality just moving forward on momentum rather than on True Power. Thus when problems or conflict arise, the flywheel begins to fail, and suddenly the fact that the power is gone begins to draw attention. However, the temptation by many is to blame that which stopped the momentum rather than that which caused the disconnect from the Power Source. In reality, problems that illuminate the lack of power can be helpful and instructive. They present an opportunity to change direction, turn away from the current course and turn back to God. For those who love Him, this is the only sure path.

Perfect Imperfection

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Perfect Imperfection

Not everything in nature is lovely. I recently noted a very old gnarled tree. There was little symmetry and no beauty to it at all. There were several dead branches marring it’s appearance and mistletoe, a parasite, leeching the life away from the tree growing near the top. This tree was in a word- ugly.

Yet in an odd way, it was exactly the tree’s imperfections which caught my attention and made me stop and notice it in the first place. It was the tree’s unusual appearance which made it arresting to look at. Certainly things of perfection, such as a perfectly manicured lawn, are beautiful as well. But oh how much more lovely is sweeping field filled with clover and wildflowers! The towering ancient gnarled tree! The cactus in bloom in the violent desolation of the desert! The perfect lawn pales in comparison to these!

People, in general, seem to prefer the perfection of the manicured lawn to the wild, unpredictable asymmetry of nature. We insist on conformity to our image of manicured people in our circle of friends, neighbors, or church family. We perhaps do not adequately appreciate the amazing variety and unexpected eccentricities that God has built into his human Kingdom. Just as He built the unexpected into nature, He has also done in his crowing glory- the children He calls His own! We are all creatures of wondrous variety.

The temptation we must resist is that of attempting to turn each field of clover we encounter into a well manicured lawn. When we approach our neighbor with the intention of cutting clear all that we do not understand or appreciate, and then implant our own weedkiller and fertilizer, we risk altering their own unique essential being. We may tell ourselves that this is for the greater good, but it is still interfering with God’s perfect creation. Think of it this way. How incredibly boring would a world full of nothing but perfectly manicured lawns as far as the eye can see be? How incredibly boring would our lives be if they were peopled by nothing but perfectly manicured and conformed people? Let us instead look at each other with the eyes of God who created and sustains both nature and human beings in all their perfect imperfection. Amen!