POWER UP: 5 Days of Inspiration for Connecting to God's Powerනියැදිය

POWER IN WEAKNESS

Tom Randele was an avid golfer and car enthusiast who lived in a modest yellow three-bedroom Cape on a quiet tree-lined cul-de-sac in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, a small affluent suburb north of Boston.

He was a good father, good husband, good friend, well-liked by his friends and customers. He was a regular guy, in a typical small town in America. Except that Tom Randele was a fugitive from justice, wanted for over fifty years.

Tom was twenty years old working as a teller at the Society National Bank in Cleveland, Ohio. On Friday, July 11, 1969, he walked out with a paper bag containing $215,000 (equivalent to $1.6 million today) and was never seen again. The bank didn’t realize the money was missing until Monday, giving him a two-day head start to make his escape.

Tom Conrad was his real name, but he assumed a new identity. He started a new life and stayed one step ahead of law enforcement for decades. Over the years investigators chased leads all over the country. His case was even on “America’s Most Wanted” and “Unsolved Mysteries.”

Tom was the teaching pro at Pembroke Country Club and then became manager of the country club. Later he shifted his vocation to selling luxury cars. He worked at Woburn Foreign Motors, Range Rover and Volvo until his retirement.

He got lung cancer and passed away at 73. His wake at the McDonald Funeral Home in Wakefield featured a long line of mourners wrapped around the entire building. Just before he died, he gave a deathbed confession to his family and told them of his true identity. Tom had successfully pulled off one of the biggest bank robberies in Cleveland history. A secret he had hidden for 52 years.

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV) says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

We can’t wait until the end of our life to acknowledge our weaknesses. God’s power comes from authenticity not deception. Hiding the truth about ourselves hinders God’s power. God doesn’t bless the pretend version of us. The power comes to the real you not the fake you, the pretend you, the phony you.

When we admit our faults, struggles and sins, God’s power rests on us. God can’t heal what we don’t reveal. Moses, David, Paul, Peter all had their weaknesses, but they admitted them and God used them in powerful ways. And he will do the same for you.