Supercharged

In 1960, John Kennedy was running for the presidency, and was campaigning near a coal mine in West Virginia. One of the miners put a series of questions to Kennedy:

"Is it true that your father is one of the wealthiest men in the world?" Kennedy admitted that this was true.

"Well, then, is it also true that you’ve always had everything you’ve wanted?” Again Kennedy admitted that this was true.

The miner’s voice got louder, and his pitch got higher, "Then is it also true that you’ve never done a day’s work with your hands in your whole life?" Kennedy gulped a little, but blurted out, "Yes."

The coal miner drew himself up to his full height, took a deep breath, looked the would-be president straight in the eye, and spit it out, "Then let me tell you something. You haven’t missed a thing!"

Work. Work. For all of our fabled Washington workaholism, we are not all that excited about work. We want to work, and yet we don’t want to work. We want the paycheck and we hope for decent working conditions: but not everyone gets fulfillment out of his work. Not everyone finds her work compelling and life-shaping. Work is something about which we have mixed feelings. And for a lot of folks, if you haven’t been working, well, "you haven’t missed a thing."

Some people approach their work as if it were an unbearable burden. They act as if working is just about to kill them. Some people seem to carry the weight of their work as if it were two tons of dead meat, smelling to high heaven. And I am talking not only about those who have jobs to go to: I am even talking about retired people. Even people with no jobs can feel burdened when you ask them to accept some responsibility. Everything is just a big, dead weight; everything is just a problem, I’m tired, I can’t handle any more. Get off my back. Whew!

I have several friends like that. Minister friends. Now some of you think that ministers have it easy; all we have to do is stand up for twenty minutes on Sunday and scream, right? Well, I have several friends in the ministry who do nothing but whine and complain about how burdensome their job is, how it squeezes all the juice out of them, how unreasonable the people are. Wheeze and whine, moan and groan. Even ministers, in my experience, find their work an unpleasant weight, and, if you’ve never had to do it, "Well, you haven’t missed a thing!"

But there is another side. There is another approach to work. There are people with entirely different attitudes. People who thrive on their work ... again, whether it is work for which they get paid or whether it is volunteer service or maybe just taking care of their families. There are people who never feel the weight. They get a lift from somewhere, they have some wind beneath their wings, they gain energy rather than lose energy when they work. The more they have to do, the happier they are. There are people, and, thank God, this church has some of them, who are ready to say "Yes" to the tasks life brings, and who embrace those tasks with joy and with energy.

What is the difference? Why does one person see his work as a burden and the other see it as a joy? Why does one person, when you ask her to do something, moan and groan about how much she is already obligated to, and another will not only agree to do what is asked, but will do it well, do it quickly, and do even more than what is asked? What makes the difference?

The Bible’s answer is a renewed mind. A renewed mind. Paul tells us in Romans, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”

Well, what is a renewed mind? A renewed mind is something like a supercharger on an automobile engine. A supercharger ... and please pardon the engineering illustration if you’re one of those folks whose mechanical knowledge is nothing more than "put in the key and press the pedal to the metal" … a supercharger is a device which does a very simple thing for a gasoline engine, but that simple thing has dramatic results. A supercharger draws in extra air. It blows in extra air, adding to the mixture of gasoline and air that burns in your car’s engine. And just by forcing in more air, the supercharged engine puts out a great deal more power.

A renewed mind is like that. A renewed mind is supercharged. A renewed mind takes in the Holy Spirit, and mingles the presence of God with its own abilities. And the mixture of the Spirit of God and your own abilities gives you power; the mixture of the Spirit of God and your own abilities supercharges you, so that your work becomes not a burden, but a joy. Your life becomes not a series of problems, but an ongoing chorus of victories. The renewed mind is supercharged.