Sometime ago, I installed a simple RPG game here in our PC. In the first part, the main character in the game didn't know that she has special powers. One day, while she was strolling, a group of boys bullied her and started teasing her and hurting her. She picked up a stick to defend herself. But the moment she waved the stick, a surge of magical power flowed out from her hand and onto the stick, sending the bullies flying several feet away from her. Some people saw what happened. And they whispered, "She must be really powerful. Strong powers must be needed to make that stick become a very powerful weapon."

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not promoting any RPG games here, much less, playing RPGs.

Anyways. There is just one thing that stuck in my head with the story of that game. It was the stick. That brittle strip of branch... The people in the story didn't say, "Whoa! What a powerful stick! It must be a magical wand!" Instead, they immediately notice the power of the girl--the one who was holding the stick.

Each of us are just but a stick. Powerless. Brittle. Nature’s natural waste… It is in the hands of God when we become useful and powerful. The power and the strength don’t come from within us. It comes from the Source. If we are detached from the Source, we return to lifeless sticks, just enough to fuel a bonfire. Just as Jesus said in John 15:4-5, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”

We have no right to claim the glory. It was not the stick that was seen powerful. It was the person who was holding it. God alone deserves the glory for all the things we have reached and we have accomplished. He is the One holding us. He is the One who makes us what and who we are right now.

So every time we are in the verge of savoring the glory… Clutch the robe of humility around your body ever more tightly and may God remind us of the stick.

“I am a but stick… It is in Your hands I became more than I could have imagined.”

All glory to the Highest!