If You Don’t Have the Energy to Manifest Anything

Last updated on: April 29, 2021 at 7:12 am by Anne Kennedy

If You Don’t Have the Energy to Manifest Anything 2021-04-29T07:12:11-04:00 Anne Kennedy

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I was wandering around youtube yesterday looking for more in the genre of What I Eat In A Day of the Japanese variety:

which, for whatever inexplicable reason, is my latest kick. I don’t actually watch a lot of anything, even on youtube, but I do find it very soothing at the end of the day when I am too exhausted to move to lie back and gape at an elegantly edited ten minutes of someone eating stuff that looks delicious in an immaculate and spare tiny apartment that resembles nothing like the loud shouting in my kitchen below as my children bash their way through yet more boxes of sugar cereal. A breakfast of miso and rice will never be my lot, but knowing that it exists out there in the world somewhere is pretty great.

Anyway, as I was scrolling I found a bunch more people still talking about Rachel Hollis’ devastating tictoc moment where she leaned close into the camera and explained that she had no inclination whatsoever to be “relatable,” just like Harriet Tubman and RBG. And then I found this:

It appears to be older (I guess?) than the viral tictoc fiasco, which I think is sort of interesting. I wonder what Rachel would say happened. Did she bring the wrath of the internet down upon herself because of something awry inside her? Or is someone else to blame? Has the experience given her any kind of glimpse into the cruelty of the idea that you get a certain kind of life because you particularly attract it because of who you are? I expect not, because her millions are made by getting people to change who and how they are–with her expensive help–so that they also can be rich like her.

So anyway, this morning, by contrast, I happened in my regular trek through the Bible to land on this:

Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

I love that line–“who was highly valued by him.” I’m sure that’s what Rachel was meaning by the expression, “person who cleans my toilets.” All of us have to do jobs we don’t want to, and if we can offload them onto other people, those people become “valuable” to us. But the centurion didn’t just value his servant because of all his good and helpful labor. He valued him in some deeper way, so much that he flung himself upon Jesus in humility–not presuming anything from the Lord, but begging for mercy. No one, thought the centurion, would have been able to take the place of that servant. And, in turn, all the people under the centurion’s rule found him so “worthy” because he had done so much for them, that they also begged Jesus for help for this sick servant. And Jesus marveled because he had not come across this kind of desperate faith in anyone yet that they would be willing to cast everything aside in a plea for mercy. And so the delicate web of necessary relationships, so tenuous and prone to ruin, was there restored in one bright salvific moment.

That’s the trouble, really. We do “attract” or bring about lots of things, but usually not very many of them the things we want. We chiefly attract death and confusion. I can spend all day beating back the swirling chaos, and at the end of the day, I generally have nothing to show for it. My kitchen is a wreck no matter how much I clean it, and my body is headed to the grave. This is true for everyone, whether they have someone in to clean or not. There is only one person who can change the way things are. There is only one person who can heal both the least and the greatest, the person who is rich and thin and has everything together and the person who is sick and poor and pathetic, the centurion and the servant of the centurion. And that person is Jesus. You don’t have to “manifest” him, all you have to do is ask. You don’t have to reorder the cosmos with your energy, all you have to do is throw yourself at his feet.

What a blessed man was that servant whose master was so anxious about him that he came and humbled himself before the Lord! And how blessed are you when you do the same for yourself and for everyone in your sway. And now I will stagger into the light and try to “come” when Jesus says come, and “do this” when he says to do it. Have a nice day!

Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Unsplash

Demotivations with Anne

Culture Watch

Just Plain Spiritual

vanity

Previous Post

April 28, 2021

When God Sets A Table In The Wilderness

Next Post

April 30, 2021 7 Super Quick Takes

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Children in Conversation culture watch Daily Devotions Demotivations with Anne faith alone for the grandparents GAFCON In conversation with children In the News Kitchen Notes Lambeth Learning Notes Life Going On Men are Human Notes from Home Pictures Reading the Bible Saturday Links Sermons Signs of the Apocalypse The Bad Word Association The Prayer of Jonah Travel Notes Uncategorized Witless Wednesdays Work and the Christian

Select a Month June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 July 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which book of the Bible speaks of a valley of decision?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Habakkuk Zechariah Joel Hosea

Books by This Author Books by Anne Kennedy

See All Titles »