Go Ahead. Fire Up the Engine, Baby!

Suppose you inherited an expensive sports car, coveted worldwide for its capacity to reach record-breaking speeds while still hugging the curves.

You recognize its value, of course, but you’re terrified by the pure power of the thing. Your father’s instructions were for you to enjoy the car as he enjoyed the car, to experience the grace of the drive.

But, you’re not like him.

The power of this engine excites you, but it also frightens you. You doubt you can handle it.

You drive it, of course, but only to church on Sundays and occasionally on Wednesdays for prayer meeting. You always abide by the speed limit and you stay between the lines. The rest of the week, the car remains in your garage. After a while, you forget it’s designed for high performance. Your father’s instructions became an old memory.

Until one day, your neighbor inherits a similar sports car from his father. Immediately, he sets out on a road trip. The dispatches he sends back to town are tantalizing, brimming with hair-raising turns and breathtaking views.

So, you wonder.

You walk out to the garage and stare at your inheritance. You can almost hear your father whisper in your ear, “Go ahead. Fire up the engine. Let me show you what this baby can do.”

Or maybe it wasn’t a sports car.

Maybe you inherited a Stradivarius. You remove it from its velvet-lined case every Sunday and practice your scales, but that is all. Or perhaps it’s a thousand dollar sewing machine capable of dazzling quilter’s magic that you only use to hem tablecloths and bed sheets.

This, loved ones, for too many of us, is our life in Jesus Christ.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

We are Adam in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, touching the hand of God.

We are imbued, by this touch, with eternal life. The same life that infused our Lord Jesus as He walked among us, sinless, capable of seeing, knowing, healing, walking on water, transforming hearts and lives. We are inhabited by the Holy Spirit, like tongues of fire, whose coming transformed frightened fishermen into agents of glory who defied Rome and every other earthly power. We are children of the Most High God with the ear of Jesus Christ who intercedes for us before the throne of Heaven.

And then we take this dynamic, combustible, aromatic, savory, deeply-textured, multi-dimensional, time traveling, soul healing, water walking life and we drive it to church on Sundays.

Have mercy.

But our Father knows the expansive capability of the lives we’ve inherited and He knows His willingness to set us free to climb behind the wheel of these eternal wonders and hit the winding, scenic highway in Jesus’ name.

I hear His whisper, do you? “Go ahead, loved one. Fire up the engine. Let Me show you what this baby can do.”

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12-17 ESV)

Remember His promise, trust Him with your life, and switch on the ignition, baby. Go on. Take your eternal life out for a spin.