Pat was on the verge of replacing fossil fuels forever. Pat had been slaving away for years, it feel like his entire life to discover something that would totally eradicate fossil fuels forever. A hydrogen power source. Ever since Pat learned in grade school about the hydrogen bomb, he was convinced that he could use the same type of process that was used to create the atomic bomb to create a power source. Pat’s power plant could fuel everything from a car to an entire city! What is great about this power source that Pat has created is that this is truly zero emissions. This power source could be clean energy that could create more electricity. Pat’s power source would be able to provide electric cars with a charging option that is faster than filling your car up with gas and cities with more effective energy plants that require less upkeep.
It was Friday at 10:00 a.m. the day that the Ireland Environmental Division was coming to evaluate Pat’s hydrogen power plant. Two black suburbans pulled into the driveway. Just to show off a little bit, Pat had his giant inflatable movie screen going outside. He had every light in his 3 bedroom house on along with every electronic he had in his house.
Pat walked outside to meet his guest. His knees were shaking and his hands were already clammy. They pulled up directly in front of his home and as they were getting out of the car Pat said, “Hello, my name is Pat Murphy.” When all the men got out of the cars, Pat was surprised because he realized that one of the men that was in the entourage was Liam Walsh, the CEO of the leading oil, gas, and power company of the entire continent of Europe. This was the guy that Pat was hoping not to have to meet until later, because Pat’s invention could potentially put Liam out of business. However, Liam was the most thrilled to meet Pat. Liam lit up and pleasantly introduced himself and introduced the scientist and representatives that were with him. There were only 3 other men with him. One was the leading scientist of Ireland. His name was Darragh O’Conner. Darragh was Irish as you can be, blue eyes, red hair, short, and pale complexion with a pink tone to his skin. Much opposite of Liam, who the only thing Irish about him was his name. He has a polished English accent rather than Irish. He has brown hair and green eyes with pale skin, but no red in his skin at all.
After, the small talk Pat walked Liam and the rest of the representatives from Ireland Environmental Division to the power plant that was generating power to his house first to show how it works in action. Pat explained how the hydrogen plant worked and long story short rather than splitting the atom like the hydrogen bomb does, the power plant pokes a hole into the atom and it creates a minor explosion which generates an enormous amount of power.
After the tour of the power plant, Pat welcomed Liam’s crew into his living room. Pat had a pot of tea ready to serve and brought it into the living room along with the rest of his tea set. Liam opened the conversation and said, “I have zero doubts that this will work, which is why I came out today. I normally do not attend these trips but when I saw the blueprints and heard about your conversation with Nora (the head of Ireland’s Environmental Division) I had to come see it for myself. Nora sends her greets and apologies that she couldn’t make it today. Now to address the elephant in the room, why am I, Liam Walsh, the CEO of the largest power/oil company on the continent of Europe here? Well, first reason is I am head advisor to the I.E.D. because my company is the most green power and oil company that runs at this large of a scale in the world. Secondly, I have a small personal agenda. I want to offer you the opportunity of a lifetime to use your hydrogen power plant in my company. We will own the patent and we can then sell these plants for billions of dollars a piece. You will not have to do the grueling task of launching a company and politicking to get your power plants in operation, plus you will have all the resources you need to scale it down for batteries and car charges and so on. Now I will step off my soapbox and you tell me what you think, Pat.”
Pat was awestruck, he was not expecting an offer to become a part of the largest power/oil company on the continent. Quiet honestly he thought that Liam would be his greatest enemy. After sitting reflecting for a few more moments Pat took a deep breath and said, “Well Liam, first I want to say I’m flattered by the offer, but my plan was to give the patent away to every government of the world. I didn’t want this going to the private sector because this I created for the good of the world not to make a profit.”
Everyone in the room was dumbfounded. No one was expecting Pat to simply just give this invention away. This was groundbreaking, and Pat wanted to forfeit all that money and just give it away? Liam stutters for a moment and then says, Pat, look I get the desire to give this away, but you have to think, you deserve to be rewarded for creating such a great thing for humanity, it would be ashamed that you do not get what you deserve. We don’t have to make it extremely expensive, but you should get what it’s worth.
Pat, now having conviction rising inside of him, responds, “Look Liam, I get it. I know it sounds crazy, but I do not care. This is not for sale but I am giving it away. No price could change my mind. I know what this power plant is. I know it will change the world forever, but I am not going to prevent that change happening as fast as possible because of a price tag. I have air in my lungs. I have the opportunity to live this significant life. The least I could do to give back to the world is give this away so the entire planet can run off clean energy. On top of that, I am not just giving the patent away, I am giving my assistance to any and every country that wants my help to implement these power plants to make sure that this is possible.
Liam, realizing that Pat was not changing his mind, says, alright well if that is your choice then lets get on with it, I know for a fact Ireland with want that patent to begin to implement this immediately, am I right, gentlemen? Liam looks to the government representatives in the room and they all nodded and Pat stood to shake Liam’s hand but as Pat began to stood he realized Liam reached to his right side and before he could get there Pat tackles Liam and lifts up Liam’s shirt to realize that Liam had a gun and was about to kill everyone in the room to get the patent for himself and sell it. Pat takes the gun away and tells the government scientist to call law enforcement. Pat ask one of the other government scientist to go to his kitchen and get him some zip ties and Pat ties Liam’s hands behind his back and his feet to together as Liam is now laying face down on the floor.
Pat got up after tying down Liam and looked at Darragh and said I want you to take this plan to the government of how to implement this power plant if you are interested. Right as Darragh was about to respond there was a knock on the door and I open the door and there was a short thin woman with long, straight, brown hair and she said, “Hello my name is Dr. Nora Byrne I am the head of the Ireland Environmental Division and I am here to talk to meet Pat Murphy about his power hydrogen power plant. Are you Pat Murphy?” Pat was dumbfounded and totally confused. I turn around to Darragh and say if she’s…” Then before I could finish Darragh takes off and Pat looks to Nora and says “call the cops. Just do it. I’ll explain later.” Then the crew that came with Nora realized that Darragh was trying to escape and sent the other representatives that were with her to get Darragh and the other guy from Liam’s fake representative committee. Pat and the about 6 men from from the I.E.D chased down Darragh and his co-worker and tie them up with zip ties.After they got done securing the men Pat explains the situation to Nora about how Liam faked being a head advisor to the I.E.D and tried to manipulate him to take it for himself.
After explaining the situation, Pat gave the I.E.D the patent and everything else that they needed to implement this hydrogen power plant in any community. Nora thanked Pat and went on her way.
We all have a choice: to use what God gifts us with to elevate ourselves above others, or to use what we have to serve others. We live in a world that tells you to find the real you in order to succeed. That no one else will be there for you, so simply worry about getting to the top of the ladder of success. However, when you climb that ladder like Liam did, nothing is ever enough. You will continue to try to step on people and manipulate people to make sure that no one threatens your position in society. We will go to the lengths of hurting the people closest to us if it means that we can just take another step up in society.
However, there is another way of life available for us. Rather than using people as steps to climb to the top, we can use what we have to help those around us to make a difference in the lives of others. Jesus was the perfect example of how serving others is actually the greatest form of power.
“Jesus, knowing that the Father had handed all things over to Him, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God,”
John 13:3 NASB2020
Jesus redefined power forever. Power is not something to be used to abuse, but power is a tool to serve others. We find that our fulfillment is making a difference rather than making a dollar when we choose Jesus’ way of life. If we think that we could ever make enough money to fill the emptiness inside us, we will be utterly disappointed. There will never be enough money or fame to satisfy us. The satisfaction we all are looking for in life starts with living for something larger than ourselves.
When we die to ourselves, when we lay down our selfish desires and make God’s desires our desires, we will experience new life. Many self proclaimed Christians have not died to themselves. Rather, they have used religion to empower them to judge people, but that is not the life that Jesus modeled or taught us to live.
“For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for the one who has died is freed from sin.”
Romans 6:5-7 NASB2020
What following Jesus looks like is dying to our egos and pride and living our lives in service to others. Rather than going into every situation thinking, “How can this benefit me?” Go into every situation thinking, “How can I benefit the surrounding people?” You will not live your life being everyone else’s foot stool to success, but rather God will elevate you into your ultimate purpose that he designed for you before you were born.
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