The Deep End

Robotic Faith

Once, in a department store, when I was not paying enough attention to where I was going, I felt a sudden nudge, and thought I had carelessly bumped into a fashionably-dressed lady. “Oh,” I said, “I’m so sorr…” Imagine my embarrassment when I realized I was talking to a very lifelike mannequin.

I remember thinking that, if manufacturers can make a statue look this real, it won’t be long before they figure out a way to mechanize them, and make them walk and talk. (This may already be the case with robots – I’m not up to date on the latest technology.) But, one of the main obstacles to walking, talking mannequins would have to be their inability to adapt to changes and solve problems which would allow them to overcome obstacles without someone pre-programming them.

In Philippians 4:12, the Apostle Paul sounds almost smug as he sounds off on his own ability to adapt to changes and overcome adversity. “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”

Did the world’s greatest Christian suddenly have a “pride attack?” Is he bragging that he knows how to handle being mistreated and being praised? That he knows how to handle getting everything he wants and getting nothing that he wants? That success and lack of success are all the same to him?

Not exactly. In Verse 13 he boldly proclaims the “secret of his success:”

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Philippians 4:13

The Apostle Paul was not a mindless automaton, unaffected by the ups and downs of life. Instead, he had an inner strength that was stronger than anything which could be implanted in him by man. His Strength was Christ Jesus.

When we trust in Christ, rather than in our own resources and selves, there is nothing we cannot withstand, and nothing we cannot overcome.