Today, James Cowell, Year 13 Kerrison, gave the homily, centred around the Lightbulb. I hope you enjoy the message he gave the pupils this morning.
The Lightbulb
Thank you so much to Rev B who has given me this huge opportunity in speaking to all of you this morning.
How many of you here want to constantly be happy and motivated?
Well, that’s good then, because so do I, and I am here to tell you about an outlook we, as young people, can put into practice and change how we operate on a day to day basis.
Now let’s get into it then… Who here loves a lightbulb?
Yeah, I didn’t think it would get that much ovation… but many people just see a lightbulb at face value, they don’t see that each part of the lightbulb has a specific function that carries out the objective which is to create light, and if one element of the light isn’t working, then the lightbulb simply doesn’t work.
We, as humans, are lightbulbs. I know some of you are thinking this is a little cringe but hang on!
We can all agree as we sit here today that there is so much need, so much deprivation in the world, and we need to emit light into the dark situation that we are faced with.
I have broken down each element inside of the lightbulb and shown how we can put it into place in our lives and become a light-emitting human.
Components of the inside of the light bulb:
1. The Metal Base
The function of a metal base is it securely supports the light bulb within an electrical source. So, for us, what this is telling us is that we need to be connected to something. For me, that is the Bible, maybe for you it is helping the environment or reading and applying what you learnt from that book. It needs to be something that gives you energy, something that gives you a passion, something that gives you a purpose. Something that, when the waves of life come along, anchors you down and keeps us from drifting away.
I am here to encourage you today to find something that gives you fuel for the rest of the day.
Because without it, you can’t give off light.
That’s detail number one.
2. The second part of the lightbulb is the Filament
This is the main factor and without it, there would be no light. Its function?
The filament inside the light bulb is shaped as a coil to allow the required length of the tungsten within its small environment to produce an abundant amount of light. The filament heats up to a blistering 2,550 degrees Celsius (4,600 degrees Fahrenheit).
That beats Great Yarmouth on a summer’s day!
We, as humans, need to have a passion. Something that we get up in the morning and are ecstatic about doing. It’s something that you could do for free if you would have the choice of doing it, but we need to be on fire for something, as this is what produces that light and starts to change people’s perspective on what young people are like. Other people can see when your filament is burning, they begin to grow towards you and want to hang around with you. If you sit here today and you don’t have a passion, get around people who do as then you start becoming enriched by their passion and find what it is to burn your filament.. because without it you can’t give off light.
Element number 3: The Invisible Gases
Unseen within the light bulb are inert gases usually formed of argon and/or nitrogen. These low-pressure gases prevent the filament inside the bulb from burning out;
What this means for us: we need to have a dream. What a dream simply does for a young person is it gives them direction and a purpose because if a young person doesn’t have a dream they are simply walking aimlessly.
Greta Thurnburg is a young person who has a Huge dream, although some of us sitting here today do not enjoy some of her comments, we can all agree that she has a dream; because of that dream she is passionate about what she does.
This shows that if a young person has a dream and is passionate about fulfilling it, this is when your lightbulb will begin to shine brighter than ever before.
But some of you are sItting here in darkness as you do not have a dream.
The 4th part is the Globe
THIS is the glass globe that keeps everything inside functioning.
For us, as humans, this function is; having a support system around us full of friends and family who will build us up even when we do wrong.
“if you look at your friends you can look at your future” X2
We need to have many people in our lives who will challenge us if our light is beginning to dim.
Don’t get me wrong, some of you may be thinking: JC you’re not always happy, and yes, I can be a very moody Cowell, but all it takes is one of my mates saying hey what’s up? We need to be nicer to people, period, and that’s including me. Without that support system, we can’t fulfil the potential that our lightbulb has.
So there it is, I hope you can start putting these four simple points into your life and start to see the difference in emotion and growth that you can have.
Thank you so much for listening to me, God bless.
James Cowell, Year 13 Kerrison
