The Power Within

This weekend, we celebrated my daughter’s sixth birthday. Highlighting this momentous occasion was the infamous inflatable bouncer. No doubt each of you has seen these contraptions before. Making appearances at car lots, family parties, school fairs, shopping centers and church events, these devices have become the new normal when it comes to childhood play.

As the dad, the task of acquiring, assembling and maintaining this strategic piece of equipment naturally fell to me. Doing what all good dads do when tasked with such a sacred duty, I immediately called for reinforcements. Luckily my dad and his truck were available and we headed out to conquer the shadowy kingdom of the Party Store.

There was much chaos and no small amount of drama when the clerks attempted to do a bait and switch on us.  However, in the end, we prevailed and were soon heading back with a pink and purple castle rolled up snugly in the bed of the truck. We then began the process of getting it unloaded, unrolled and ready to inflate. This was no small task either as the thing weighed a ton and had no real place to grip. Yet we men dug in and persevered until the bitter end.

It was with a sense of accomplishment that I hooked up the hose to the fan, pronounced an invocation and powered it on. Like a majestic giant slowly rising from the deep, our ugly pile of canvas soon unfurled into a grand and glorious bastion of bouncing. Within seconds the delighted squeals of my daughters announced their arrival as they blew past me in streak of pink and yellow, and plunged straight into the heart of the beast. As the guests arrived, it became clear that the castle was a hit.

Things were going great in the beginning. I had anchored the straps and carefully barricaded the sides and back so no one could go around and mess with the cords. We kept an eye on the kids and made sure they were playing safely.  Yep, we had everything under control. Just when I was sure that things were going to turn out perfectly, it happened. An extra springy bounce dislodged the inflation hose from the fan. Immediately the castle began to deflate. Luckily there were only two kids in there at the time, but they sank like rocks. No one got hurt and there were plenty of giggles afterwards, but it illustrated a point. The moment you remove the source of air from the bouncer, the entire thing collapses.

In Ephesians Chapter 3, Paul talks about the importance of being filled with the fullness of God.

14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. *

It doesn’t matter how long the journey has been, how many people have helped us along the way or how much effort we feel like we’ve put into it, if we try to live a Christian life under our own power and by our own strength, we will find that it simply collapses in on top of us.  In this passage, Paul reminds us that it is the power of the Spirit within us that brings the fullness of God.

It would be pretty ridiculous for me to have unrolled that bouncer, left it laying flat on the ground, and asked the kids to jump in it without ever plugging in the fan.  How much more rediculous would it be to try to live the Christian life without plugging into His Spirit.
Prayer: My prayer for you today is that you will allow God's spirit to fill you with strengthen you this week.

Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-19

* New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica