When I was very small my father was a high school principal. On Saturday nights he brought home a 16 mm Bell and Howell projector and films that had been ordered for his school. This was before television so I was wowed and very excited. He hung a bed sheet on the wall and we were living on easy street. One night we saw Walt Disney’s Fantasia. One of the segments was The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” A little Mickey Mouse was totally overwhelmed by a magic process he began and then could not control as brooms continue to bring in buckets of water.
Being so little I did not comprehend what it meant other than to entertain. Now I understand. Great power in the hands of the uninformed can bring great disaster. The huge lottery this past week reminded me that money is power. Suddenly, someone, most likely with little understanding of what that much money can do, will hold in their hands the power to do great good or do great harm.
When I was a young pastor I earnestly prayed for power to heal. I would leave hospitals and cry in the parking lot because I could not save some small child’s mother from breast cancer. What kind of useless servant was I? Now it is slowly dawning on me as to the havoc that would have wrought. In Ephesians 3 Paul wrote, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, . . .” The power is there but in finely measured amounts. A power surge can destroy our computers. A divine power surge could destroy souls.
Written by Roger Bothwell on April 2, 2012
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org