PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

SOUPED-UP!

ONCE IN A WHILE we see and hear a car that has been “souped-up.” As the engine idles beside you at the traffic light, you realise it is just an ordinary Japanese model that has been modified to give it that extra edge in picking up speed, giving the driver a feel of being in a racing car. It is like what we see in the movie “Fast and Furious”. 

Merriam-Webster defines “souped-up” as enhanced or increased in appeal, power, performance, or intensity.

In my last article in this column, I made mention of leaders who are 1,000 cc but have deluded themselves into thinking that they are in the 3.5-litre league. They can be “souped-up.” Actually the term is an American slang for fuel used to power fast aeroplanes and cars. It includes also additional hardware in order to accomplish that.

While we can acknowledge certain limitations about ourselves, it does not necessarily mean that that is the end, especially when we believe in a God who also acts supernaturally. The point to start, however, is to acknowledge who we are not and what we do not have. Humility is required here. Then when God acts we honestly recognise that it is His glory and His alone.

The fuel to soup up Christian leaders (and for that matter any believer in Christ) is faith that believes in the God with whom nothing is impossible. Mary found that out when informed that she was going to carry a Child not conceived through any human means (Luke 1:37). The disciples found that out when they could not cure the epileptic. (Matthew 17:20). 

Peter demonstrated that faith when he said to the paralytic: “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you: in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” (Acts 3:6). It was an acknowledgement of what he did not have, but what the Lord could do through him.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, says Scripture. The New English Bible translates that as “gives substance to our hope”. Anyone who believes in the God who can do the impossible is a person filled with hope. He knows it is beyond him. It can only be God. Yet it is his faith that will turn into reality what he admittedly knows he is not capable of.

The Rev Dr Wee Boon Hup is the President of Trinity Annual Conference.