PODCAST: Living Above Your Nature at School

Back to School Sermon Presented August 19, 2012 at Curwensville Alliance

Just last year, Austin Smith, a 15-year-old from Michigan, was bleeding the brakes on a 1991 Buick Century with his grandfather.

muscleWhile Austin was inside the car pumping the pedal, the vehicle shifted and after he got out, it fell off the blocks, pinning Grandpa Ernie under 2,000 pounds of steel.

As he tells the story, Austin says, “I was just so scared. I didn’t know what to do.” So Austin grabbed the car by its front bumper and lifted. He lifted it high enough that his grandpa could crawl out.

How did he do that? Huey Lewis might say, “That’s the power of love.” We all know it’s adrenaline. When you are in that kind of situation, sometimes, your body can do things that aren’t humanly possible. Or at least not ordinarily humanly possible.

Austin was living above his natural abilities — empowered to do something he could not naturally hope to do. God does that for Christians — empowers us to live above our nature.

This podcast suggests that you can do that as you head to school this fall.

Power Corrupts…

Charles Colson said…

Power is like saltwater; the more you drink, the thirstier you get. The lure of power can separate the most resolute of Christians from the true nature of Christian leadership, which is service to others. It’s difficult to stand on a pedestal and wash the feet of those below. — Charles Colson in Kingdoms in Conflict, p. 274.

True.