Pat Benetar is one of my favourite female Rockers and this song has taken on a special significance for me over the decades.
When I use the word mojo, I don’t mean as in Austin Powers, and I don’t mean like it’s dictionary definition: “a magic charm, talisman, or spell; influence, especially magic power.”
For the Christian can seek no power except the original source of all power, God; the One (who is Three) who is infinite and perfect in knowledge, wisdom and love. Next to Him we can eschew and laugh at lesser brute, impersonal, magical and manipulative forms of power:
1Co 8:5-6 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), (6) yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. “”
I mean mojo as the experience of God’s power, hope, wisdom, strategy and drive, among other things, turning one’s trudge on the path of life into a lighter, surer step, even causing one to break out into an occasional sprint.
I mean mojo as captured in this Bible verse:
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. (30) Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; (31) but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.
I’ve been walking with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for thirty-two years now and I’ve noticed certain patterns in their dealings with me.
Time and again challenges and responsibilities pile up and create an existential space that is beyond my power, beyond my control, and far beyond my joy and patience.
The longer I walk with the Trinity, the more I perceive that They expect me, precisely in these pressurized, beyond-me contexts, to listen carefully and to know deep down that They are in control and at work in all things for the best – this in every corner of the universe and in every nook and cranny of my life.
On the basis of this deep, sure knowledge, They expect me to refuse to act silly and sinful (in the multitude of ways that we all know how to), but rather to consistently trust and seek and listen and learn and obey and persevere, until I gain what has been promised, within and without.
There have been times when, after I’ve “cooked” long enough, I’ve experienced four or five intractable problems resolve or line up, literally in a day, and I’ve gasped, “Wow God!!!”
But equally, the more I grow up, the less the Trinity needs to make all things simple, easy, or resolved for me to joyfully run with Them.
God does give us milk at first but longs to move His children onto solid food, as Thomas Monson captures in this well-known quote (which I would expand to say “abilities and character”):
“Do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your tasks. Then the performance of your tasks will be no miracle, but you will be the miracle.”
Back to Pat Benetar’s “All fired up” – a song that I now reserve for moments when I can feel every lyric as I put on my headphones and thrash the skins on my old Tama drum kit (you’ve actually got to listen to the song to feel its spirit)
“Reachin’ out with both hands, I gotta feel the kick inside…
Now I got a new fire, burnin’ in my eyes
Lightin’ up the darkness, movin’ like a meteorite…
Now I believe there comes a time
When everything just falls in line
We live an’ learn from our mistakes
The deepest cuts are healed by faith”
I drummed to this song for the first time in two years today. And that, like God, is very good.
