by Jim Campbell, Pastor, Bay West Church of Palm Bay Florida
Lamps are useful devices. They are designed to give light to a dark space. They help us see to read or to walk through a room without injury. They can also be used to do other things. You can hang a wet hand towel over the shade to dry or you can use them to prop open doors or even to drive a small nail with the base (if you are careful). While a lamp could be used to do all these things in certain situations, doing those things could damage the lamp and prevent it from accomplishing the purpose for which it was made… to give light. That’s what the lamp does best. When it is giving light, it is fulfilled.
In most lamps, there is a limitation to achieving that purpose. To do what they were meant to do and fulfill their purpose, they have to be plugged into a source of power. Humans are like that as well. We were created for a purpose and, in pursuing that purpose, we can find our greatest fulfillment and satisfaction. I think that you cannot be happier and more fulfilled than when you are doing/being what you were made to do/be. The problem is that, like the lamp, we were made to be plugged into a source of power to accomplish our purpose.
Early in the Bible, God identifies Himself as the “Lord Almighty”, or literally translated, the source of all power or might. Realizing what God is saying, by giving Himself this name, is the key to understanding one’s own life direction to fulfillment. He IS the ONLY power source for us. To put it in “lamp” vernacular, for us, He’s the difference between only being able to prop open a door and being able to find complete fulfillment in realizing our purpose in life.
The sad part is far too many people choose to suffer through their existence being a drying rack for a wet towel; feeling like something is missing, rather than grasp their God-planned destiny. The only way to do that is to plug into the “power source” through His Son, Jesus Christ. It’s a concept that has been around before wall outlets and electric lamps existed, but the principle is eternal.
My wish for 2010 is that we all locate the path to the “Source” (Jesus), helping us “shine brightly”, in that purpose for which we were designed.