ACT ON A HUNCH AND TAP THESE GREAT RESERVES OF TAUPO

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 45, 10 June 1965, Page 3

ACT ON A HUNCH AND TAP THESE GREAT RESERVES OF TAUPO

There are reserves oi power to be tapped in God, says the Rev. I. H. Robertson in this week's Voice of the Churches, adding that he believes God wants us to act on a "h-tmch" and see what can be used in the business of living.

To those who live in Taupo the sight of steam and water power is com-mon-place. We see huge billowing clouds of steam at Wairakei; we hear its constant roar and feel the earth tremble under the force of the power it has. We know there is power there for man to use. Even though the actual transformation of such power into usable electric power goes on unseen inside turbines that give the outward appearance of being motionless and inert., we recognise that this is the source of power that makes

for better living. Our homes are cleaner and our work is easier because we have this power. The life of the residents of Taupo is bound up, directly or indirectly, with the business of using these resources of natural power for man's benefit. Man has dared to risk danger, pitting himself against these forces in nature, to harness the constructive energy latent in steam and water. The evidence of power in nature, as well as the power of &>ve between persons leads me to the belief that there must be a creator

who is responsible for those things and who is himself more powerful than the things he has created. Yet because we cannot see this creator, or be sure what he is like, or even that he is a person at all we are reluctant to trust him for power to deal with day to day interpersonal relationships in a constructive way. Because we cannot see such power many conclude that it does not exist. . Jesus said to the disciple Thomas, "Because you have seen me you have found faith. Happy are they who never saw me and yet have found faith." (John 20:29 N.E.B.) That is what FAITH is: trusting something we cannot see. Once a thing can be seen, once power can be demonstrated to exist by the wrork it can do once an idea can be proved j it eeases to beconie a matter of faith: it becomes a matter oi FACT. Faith, then, goes beyond what is known, can be prov-| ed or demonstrated, into the j realm of the unknown. It is when we begin to commit ourselves to the unknown that we really begin to live and grow. Even the engineefs and scientists who planned and created our great geothermal

power station put their faith in something they could not see. They sunk bores into the earth, not really knowing but believing they would find steam at such pressure and in such quantities as would make the generation of electric power from steam possible. There was only slight evidence, and certainly not proof, that they would find steam. You could say they acted on a hunch. What I believe God wants us to do is to act on a hunch; to "put bores (town" and tap the reserves of His power, to see if there are in fact ,such reserves there that can be used in the business of living, and to use them. There may seem to be, little evidence of such power for better living, but unless we put it to the test we will never know that j power for ourselves.

"If you have faith no bigger even than a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there!' and it will move; ! | nothmg will be impossible i for you." (Matt. 17:20 N.E.B.) Many of the difficulties we encounter in day to day living seem to us like immovable mountains, but there is a power, unseen yet real, within ourselves that we can tap to deal with life's difficulties."