Resources

About a month ago, as I was driving along a Georgia road after a day of work, my mind was fixated on the vehicle in front of me. All of its parts, the tires, the bumper, the muffler, the glass, the radio were all produced then combined together to create that vehicle. All complex things that we take for granted but nevertheless, a very amazing feat in human ingenuity was driving there right in front of me. Indeed, it’s something we see every day but only came about within the last 150 years. What I realized is that every component of that vehicle no matter how complex in design or process, whether man made or natural, came from the Earth.

If that is the case, then technically, everything that was ever made, or will be made, manufactured, created or engineered was already here, throughout all of history. It was a matter of digging the resources out of the ground, processing them, applying them, combining them, using research and development to merge them into a useful thing. The same resources were there 4000 years ago as they are today. In this way, all things ever made and will be made or could be made are already able to be here today. The elements that bring them into being are knowledge, understanding, work, and creativity. There is a mind behind all that.

Which brings this verse to mind in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

There is also a spiritual parallel to this. Jesus said he would send us his Holy Spirit. The Spirit is a resource that is always available. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 5:16, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” What I want to point out is he says to “walk in the Spirit” as if you are already able to; the resources are already there. Later he talks about the fruit of the Spirit as, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” It’s not forced on you it is a resource, a walk, a way of life that you have the power to choose. If you want patience, ask for patience and walk in it because it is readily available.

I have a friend who had a conversation with an acquaintance who said, “I have to try to be a good father” but my friend did not reply with, “well, I’m sure if you try hard enough it will happen.” Instead she responded with, “if the desire is there you will know exactly how to be a good father, there is no trying, it’s just BEING a good father.” She blew my mind with that because I had somewhere in the back of my head resigned to think it had more to do with luck in the cosmic lottery how well you did in life.

The resources are there and have always been. What it comes down to is recognizing where to get those resources and choose to dig them out of the ground, process them, refine them and apply them.