Living life at a "Power Factor" of 1

I spent 31 years as an electrical engineer, specifically in the design and construction of power generation and transmission systems. With only a few exceptions, bulk power systems are “AC,” which stands for “alternating current.”  The 120/240 Volt system in your home is no exception.  AC means that electrical current flowing in a system reverses direction a number of times a second.  In North America, it does this 60 times a second (known as 60 Hertz power).  

One thing about AC power systems is that the electrical current is not always (and usually isn’t) aligned with the electrical voltage that is driving it; that is, the electrical current and electrical voltage reverse at different times.  The physics of this is such that only the portion of the current that is aligned with the voltage driving it is useful for doing work, such as providing torque in a motor or moving something electro-magnetically. The rest looks like it can deliver power, but in it cannot; in fact, engineers call this imaginary power.  The extent to which a system's electrical current is aligned with the voltage driving it is known as the system "power factor,"

Our lives are like this: It is only that portion of our lives aligned with God that are useful and can do the work of the Kingdom.  Since the Holy Spirit is the power of God at work our lives, it is only that portion of our lives that are aligned with the Holy Spirit that can produce real power for living.  The rest is an illusion, powerless, and in the end, amounts to nothing.  When current and voltage are perfectly aligned in a system, it is called a power factor of “1;” therefore, we can draw the interesting analogy that living life to the full is like living at a power factor of 1.

Fr. Rob