Many thanks to Alastair McIntosh for allowing us reproduce his ‘Thought for the Day’, which was broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland on 23rd October 2013:

Power is big-time in the news at the moment. Power in the sense of what we’re paying for our domestic energy bills. Power as the petrol and diesel refined at Grangemouth, and power of the human kind from both sides of that refinery’s industrial dispute.

When yet another energy company announced a 10% price hike this week I happened to be on the website of Ineos, who own Grangemouth, and I was struck that they list one of their key aspirations as the “empowerment of employees….”

It’s an interesting word: empowerment. It means to invest with power, to find power with others, and especially, power from within.

It happens that my wife and I have found ourselves feeling very empowered this year in the face of ever-rising energy prices. We’ve managed to make our bills crash through the floor by installing solar panels and a small air-source heat pump. Put simply, the energy of light falling on our roof helps pump heat from the outside and warm the house – even on cold days – and that, with equipment that now costs no more than a decent second hand car.

I’m not wanting to sound smug; I’m wanting to share experience. Not every home is suitable for renewable energy and many couldn’t afford it, but with the right policies in place these technologies could make a huge difference to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and fuel poverty, because they harness the powers of nature.

In spiritual language, such are the gifts of Providence, and while I don’t go along with all of the Westminster Shorter Catechism that we used to learn in school, I do love the part that describes God’s presence as manifesting “in the works of Creation and Providence.”

To me, that’s the root of real empowerment. That’s the power that can change the world. God’s energy.

~ Alastair MacIntosh is an author and Fellow of the Centre for Human Ecology. He was a popular speaker and workshop facilitator at Eco-Congregation Ireland’s inaugural conference in September 2013.