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The
Power of ONE
by Envoy Charles
Roberts
No matter what we do, it is easy to get overwhelmed in this
life.
Marion Wright Edelman, Chair of the Children’s Defense Fund
often quotes a Breton Fisherman’s Prayer that resonates with
my heart, and perhaps with yours:
 Dear
God, be good to me;
The sea is so wide,
And my boat is so small.
Life’s compression and frenetic speed often leaves us
scrolling through much of life, without reading anything.
Everything is instant, quick or artificial – yet always
“new and improved.”
The usual norms of production and consumption quickly
bring diminishing returns in the soul, because there really is
no upgrade to a virtuous existence.
You can’t buy
happiness.
Really. (What? What do
you mean, I can’t download it?)
Seemingly just out of our grasp, even with all our
screaming-out-of-control technology, we can’t simply click for
goodness, authenticity or community, no matter how hard we
try. Caveat
emptor – “let the buyer beware,” because the relationship
market always sells a cheap imitation.
So, perhaps we try “bowling alone.” And, we discover, that’s
exactly what it is.
No fuss, no muss, no drama, but only one ball is coming
out of the return.
And as we drown in the deepening waters of solipsism to avoid
the dread of actually having to look, smell, walk near, touch,
or perhaps even talk to another carbon-based sentient
being……we still have cravings that cannot be accessed.
Deep behind walls of self-imposed, self-protective
promises, there is a deep, gaping ache.
And in this place, the rogue waves churn, one after another.
Will I ever be happy?
Can I ever be good?
Can I ever be set free?
Is death the only answer?
Is there
anything…more?
Augustine, who in his Confessions, gives us one of the
first explorations of the psyche, wrote this: “"To Carthage I
came, where they sang all around me in my ears a cauldron of
unholy loves. As yet I loved no one, yet I loved to love, and
out of a deep-seated need, I hated myself for being needy. I
pursued whoever - whatever might be loveable, in love with
love. Safety I hated--and any course without danger. For
within me was a famine." Think about Augustine—for years
dodging the entreaties of his mother Monica, entering into
Carthage as a raconteur,
he realizes his need for awakening, writing, "For within me
was a famine..." A
famine within. This is not just the ultramodern dilemma; this
is the road toward depravity for all the ages. All revved up
and no place to go - no place to be heard and understood,
living under the illusion that sham love is the real thing.
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The replacement of significance with
sex., love with violence, giving with getting.
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Risk taking at all costs. (“futility of
thinking” – WTF?)
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The exalting of a god that acts more like
a drone, powered by remote-control, who lives by human terms.
One who is neither just nor dangerous…whose needs your
money….operators are standing by!
A famine within. Does that resonate with your soul?
In the mid-380s, a man by the name of Ponticianus read
Athanasius' "Life of Antony" to an official in the Empire
named Augustine. He had found Augustine and a friend reading
the letters of Paul, and discovered that neither the friend
nor Augustine had heard of Antony.
For those of you who had not heard of Antony, he was a hermit
who lived in Egypt, and through his devotion to God and a
radically fasted lifestyle had wrought miracles as he
encountered evil head-on!
When Ponticianus told of Antony's life, Augustine was struck
with a profound sense of shame. This is when he entered the
famous garden, where he heard a child's voice saying, "Take up
and read." That's when he opened to Romans 13:13-14: "Put on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the lusts of
the flesh." That's when he responded to the awakening that
came from the Almighty.
There is ONE option, and we get ONE moment….to make ONE
decision to change the trajectory of our entire lives.
There is only ONE message, about ONE Person, who came
as the only Savior to do ONE thing…..to save His people from
their sins.
Get fed, nurtured at a level of soul so deep, that it is like
the richest and finest of foods.
Come find out what really feeds your soul, no money down – the
price has already been paid.
The ONE has already come, and has a gift for you, life
eternal. ONE man
has already arrived, the only ONE who could have split time in
two, has come to make you whole.
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