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Tornado in a Can
by Jesse W. Love
Copyright 2003 Corporation
of the Regent of the Church of Celestine Light
All rights reserved.
We
underestimate ourselves. Every day we make decisions based
upon, among other things, our perception of our ability to
accomplish our goals and desires. We only set the sight so
high, only pace ourselves at a certain level of effort to insure
we can meet our goals. Past experience has probably taught us
that if we raise our expectations too high we could come
crashing down, so we have learned to set the bar at just the
right height to go forward with little risk of getting hurt or
failure. In other words, we accept mediocrity rather than
stretching for a greater accomplishment. But is this who we
really are; someone that exchanges security at the price of
greatness? Of course not! Look into your innermost feelings,
beyond the artifices of appearance, routine or other people’s
expectations. Inside the depths of your soul, inside your hopes
and aspirations for this life, there is a heroic person; someone
that is here for a magnificent purpose; someone NOT satisfied
with mediocrity or running with the crowd; someone ready to
burst forth in wonder upon the world!
Recently, in
the news, there was an interesting article about an elderly
Kansas farmer named Frank Polifka, who has invented what is
being called a “Tornado in a Can”. Mr. Polifka observed the
primordial power of the Great Plains tornadoes and figured out a
way to replicate and control that tremendous force inside an 8
foot tall steel cone he calls the “Windhexe,” which he keeps in
a corrugated shed behind his barn. It’s a quaint setting that
has brought corporate America to his door. One corporate
executive commented that, “It kind of looks like something your
uncle might invent in the back yard. But it really sparks the
imagination with what you could do with it.”
My, oh, my,
what you can do with it! With a simple twist of a valve, Mr.
Polifka unleashes the fury of a cyclone with the roar of a
hurricane! Hot, compressed air is forced into the Windhexe,
whirling and spiraling counterclockwise at tremendous speed. It
produces a superheated vortex which pulverizes concrete into
powder and reduces solid rock into dust in a matter of minutes.
The Tornado
in a Can transforms any material into its’ pure essence before
you have time to take a lunch break. Throw in garbage, dirty
diapers, raw sewage, and minutes later out comes a fine, dry
purified powder that has fertilizer and other industrial uses.
One professor from a college brought in a couple hundred pounds
of sloppy wet jelly fish, tossed them in a watched with wonder
as the Tornado in a Can transformed them into a pure, white
powder that has wonderful possibilities as a new medicine. No
matter what they have thrown in, from 400 pounds of Oreo
cookies, to frozen pizza, dead birds, soda pop cans, glass
bottles, cow manure or pine wood chips, anything and everything
is pulverized into a dry powder after just minutes trapped
inside the elemental fury of the Tornado in a Can.
There is a
Tornado inside of you too; a tornado of greater power than any
invention of man; a tornado like the Windhexe that can transform
an unpleasant reality into a completely new, pure and wonderful
reality. Only you don’t transform jellyfish and diapers. You
can transform people, beginning with yourself. You can
transform habits from destructive to beneficial. You can
transform lethargy and apathy into energy and activism. You can
transform aimlessness into purpose, failure into success. You
can transform sickness into health. You can transform
selfishness into service. You can transform taking your
companion for granted to putting them on a pedestal of love and
attention. You can transform telling your kids you’re too busy,
to sharing things with them everyday, for those opportunities
will never come again. You can transform yourself from one of
the faceless people among the teeming masses of humanity, into a
shining light that walks a higher path and is a beacon of
inspiration and example for others to take hope from and follow.
Yeshua said,
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be
hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone
in the house. In the same way, let your light shine to the
world.”
Everyone has
the ability to make great contributions to the world and every
life they touch. But most live and die as they began because
they never strive to be more than is expected; never do more
than is required; never make a commitment to themselves to
fulfill the full measure of their creation. But the power is
there. You are the Master of yourself and must make the choice;
continue to live a life that will be forgotten and without
purpose, or unleash the magic within you that can transform your
life and benefit the life of everyone whose life you touch?
You are the
Tornado in a Can. You have an unlimited potential. You are a
star in the heavens come to Earth. You are not on this Earth by
chance. You are here for a purpose far greater than anything
you have done. Reveal yourself!
Begin this
day, this moment, to be the new you. But how do you begin?
Unless you want to be continually brought back to the old dark
past, to continually have the old bad habits reassert
themselves, you must have more than desire to change. You must
realize the magnitude of the time and relationships you have
squandered in life, and feel a true sorrow for all the things
you have done badly or hurtfully that you could have done in a
better way with a more uplifting outcome.
Then humble
yourself before God and ask for forgiveness. If there are
people and loved ones you have wronged, humble yourself before
them, and confess your errors, and ask their forgiveness as
well, and however possible make restitution for the wrong you
have done. Then ask God to give you the fortitude to change
your life forever. And make a covenant to God and to your
family that you will do it, beginning that moment upon that
spot.
As Emerson
said, “You cannot run away from a weakness forever. You must
someday stand and fight it out or perish. And if this be so,
then why not now, and where you stand?”
As you ask
the forgiveness of God and ask Yeshua to come into your life,
you will be filled with the Holy Spirit and will become one of
the Children of Light. As such, you will receive inspiration
and guidance to forever help you on your path of life, as long
as you remain worthy of the blessing.
The best way
to insure long-term success is to ask God’s help and then do
everything you can to help yourself in a righteous way. Don’t
ever look back or go back to any of the ways of the past that
pulled you down. Then see yourself better than you are and
start your efforts to fulfill your vision. Don’t try to do
everything at once. Take one personal expansion at a time.
Improve yourself in one area, then go on to another.
Benjamin
Franklin is often thought of as one of the greatest of the
American founding fathers. He was an inventor, scientist, poet,
printer, writer, entrepreneur, naturalist and famous wit. But
as coach Ruff of BYU once said, “When you see a man on top of a
mountain, he didn’t just fall there”. Franklin worked his
entire life to improve himself; to banish his faults and bring
forth his merits. Realizing he would be overwhelmed if he tried
to institute all his personal improvements at once, he made a
list of each of his vices and shortcomings and what the virtuous
alternative would be. He then chose one problem and focused
intently on banishing it from his life and replacing it with a
praiseworthy personal quality or ability of virtue and value.
In this manner, one by one, he succeeded in creating a truly
outstanding life that has seen few equals in the over 200 years
since his passing. Benjamin Franklin was the city on the hill
that could not be hidden, the light shinning brightly for all to
see. But so are you. You have just as wonderful of a mind and
probably even greater prospects for education, expansion
opportunities and service.
Consider for
a moment a nuclear bomb. With the latest technology they can
make a nuclear device many times more powerful than the bomb
that leveled the great city of Hiroshima, using less than 10
pounds of plutonium! 10 pounds! Something you can hold in one
hand that has the power to obliterate a major city. Yet it is
just a metal. It only takes 1185 degrees Fahrenheit to melt
plutonium into a harmless puddle. Glass melts at almost twice
that temperature. But take a sphere of 10 pounds of solid
plutonium metal, place it in a bomb with all the right
conditions, and it unleashes a force equivalent to the power of
an exploding sun, with heat that will melt rock and a volcanic
blast that levels everything before it for many miles into utter
desolation. If 10 pounds of metal can unleash that kind of
power and force under the right conditions, think of the force
that must be lying dormant inside of you, just waiting for the
right conditions to release your power and abilities into the
world.
Begin this
day to walk with God on a higher path of eternal progression.
Begin this day by making a promise to yourself to discover and
unlock your hidden potential. As Og Mandino has said, “If it is
possible for clay and wood and hair to have their value
multiplied a hundred, even a thousand fold by man, cannot I not
do the same with the clay that bears my name?”
I promise you
that with God’s help, you can.
We invite any minister who would like to
submit a sermon to be considered for publication on this site to
please send it to:
sermons@celestinelight.org
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