Battery Life of the Christian-dj
Being in the dark at night, you open the drawer and pull out your little two-cell flashlight. Besides the click of the switch interrupting the midnight silence, nothing changes. Being astute, you quickly discern that the batteries are dead. Being prepared and having fresh batteries, you screw off the cap and try to shake out the old ones. Being observant, you notice nothing in your hand except some crusty brown chips of . . . something. Being irritated, you whack the flashlight on the counter a few times until a crusty, acidic two-battery mess falls out. Being forgetful, you realize that you haven’t used this flashlight in a year or more; the batteries have died and started corroding through lack of use.
Has that ever happened to you? Batteries work better when they are regularly used, fully exhausted, and then completely recharged. Consider cordless phones. Some manufacturers say it’s best to take the phone off the charger in the morning, allow it to use up its battery power during the day, and then recharge it at night. The battery life is extended through this kind of consistent, exhaustive use followed by regular recharging. In fact, a sure way to allow a battery to deteriorate is to never use it at all.
Too many Christians are like batteries that never get used. These believers stay fully charged all the time: they’re in church and Bible studies several times a week, they listen to Christian music, the read the latest Christian bestsellers. The problem is, their batteries never get drained in service to others. They never dispense any of that power they’re storing up.
I have witnessed many such Christians over the years who have grown lethargic, apathetic, demoralized, or powerless. They remind me of high-tech batteries that were charged up, put in a drawer, and never used. Without knowing it, these Christians have conformed to the world’s standard of focusing primarily on self instead of others; these Christians need the “other” mentality.
As usual, this biblical message to love others is poles apart from what the world preaches. Instead of focusing on self, we are to focus on serving others. Let me say emphatically at the outset, though, that the call to serve doesn’t mean we don’t set aside resources and time to take care of our own needs. Just as Jesus periodically withdrew from serving the crowds to rest and recuperate, so we need our own times of R & R as well. Just as a battery that never serves will soon wear out, so will one that is never recharged.
David Jeremiah, Signs of Life, p. 65