Ready for a Reboot

If you’re like most Christ-followers I know, you’ve walked through a season or two when you really could have used a restart button. Maybe you’re in such a season right now: your picture has been breaking up and sputtering and spitting, and you know that the life you’re living is not the life God wishes for you to live. You’re fading in and out of obedience to his commands, and therefore fading in and out of true freedom, causing the people around you to wonder whether or not you really do follow Christ. You’re weary of the superficial and in desperate need of a massive dose of something supernatural that will enable you to face life’s struggles head-on and flourish in God’s goodness for days and years to come, but you just don’t know where to turn for help. If that is true for you, then you are not alone. I have served in a local church setting for nearly forty years, and if there is one thing I’ve heard Christians of all ages, races, backgrounds, and traditions say they desire more than anything else, it is the certainty that the power of God really can make a difference in their lives.

They look at their sorry circumstances and their below-potential behavior and want to know that Jesus really can change their hearts, their habits, their desires, their patterns, and their pain. They want to know that there is enough power for them to overcome the work of the enemy in their personal lives and the forces of evil flowing through the world at large, that there is enough power for them to prevail. To their concerns—and perhaps to yours as well—I say, there is! There is plenty of power awaiting you, life-changing, habit-altering, pain-alleviating power. It’s what powering up is all about, as even Jesus’ earliest followers could attest.

Common Men, an Uncommon Opportunity

Two thousand years ago a large group of believers led by twelve men qualified as the least likely people to change the world. They were known as “disciples”—handpicked followers who would co-labor with Christ. These were rural, ordinary folk. Common men, you might say. They were sometimes rude and sometimes crude and sometimes full of rage. One of them, John, was known as a “son of thunder” and had a bit of an agitated temperament to get over before he’d experience life in all its fullness. Another, Peter, often said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Occasionally he’d say the right thing, but it was still at the wrong time.

When Jesus was nailed to the cross, these once-devoted followers caved in to their fears about being associated with a dead king and chose to flee their Master’s presence. They ran and hid in the shadows and denied having anything to do with the Messiah. Even after Jesus was raised from the dead, the disciples wondered about his power. Sure, they said they believed in the risen Christ, but relying on a crucified leader’s power to continue on with the mission they had been given? Well, that was a different proposition altogether.