Power to Face the New Year!
Dear Mosaic Family,
In 2019, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind was released on Netflix. The movie is based on the life story of William Kankwamba when he was a young teen in rural Malawi. The movie chronicles William’s efforts to save his family from starvation during a season of severe drought. The main tension in the plot of the movie arises when William, who until the season of the drought attended school, tells his parents, who never received formal education, that he thinks he could save the family’s farm by building a windmill that would power an electrical pump that would pump water from their well. If he could get constant power to the pump, the family would no longer be dependent on seasonal rains and would be able to water their crops through the use of an irrigation system as needed.
In the most tense part of the film, after many people in William’s town have died as a result of the famine caused by the drought, rioting over the rationing of the food by the government has ensued and many have blindly fled to other areas, William desperately pleads with his father to let him use parts of his bicycle to build the windmill. His father, though, dismisses the idea over and over again because he can’t fathom how wind could be harnessed to create electrical energy to power the pump. It seems too simplistic; it is beyond what he can comprehend; it seems foolish; surely investing resources and time into such a project would come at a great cost of time, resources and hope. (Spoiler alert: The story continues such that William’s father eventually gives William permission to use his bike parts to build the windmill, and William’s idea works!)
The hesitance displayed by William’s father about the idea of harnessing the wind to power the pump is a lot like the hesitance that many people have when they approach Christianity. Christianity seems too simplistic to consider when addressing real life problems. It seems like an unrealistic way to deal with presenting realities. To commit oneself to it would come at a great opportunity cost of hope (if it is wrong) and the chance to take up other ideas and approaches that one could consider in this life.
There is a lot wrong with the thinking mentioned above. It reveals a lack of true understanding of Christianity. Such a view misses how Christianity is altogether unique and says that it is the way! Furthermore, it is completely void of the understanding of how the power of God takes hold of a person and transforms them and gives them what they need to march through all seasons joyfully!
Are you looking to gain a proper understanding of the uniqueness of Christianity? Are you looking for power to leap into the New Year (with a lot of the confusion and fatigue of 2020 lingering)? Join us tomorrow as we discuss how the life and teachings of John the Baptist, as shown in Matthew 3:1-12, instruct us about Christianity’s uniqueness and the power of the Christian message to save us, uphold us and bring about our flourishing!
Blessings!
Pastor Andy