Connection

In plumbing, leaks can be caused by loose connections between pipes. And because you and I take it for granted that the connections between the unseen pipes at home are sound, once in a blue moon we are surprised when facing the inevitable—a leak.

In my house, the leak seeped up over the top of the fitting. Somehow the connection had loosened and soundness was compromised. But as quickly as it was discovered it was repaired—the contractor was in the house! Don’t you wish all of the leaks and glitches in your home would occur when a repairman was on the scene? Well, here’s good news—the Carpenter is always in the house!

The leak in the connection between the pipes started me thinking about the closeness of my connection with God. I hate to admit it, but as I look back over the past 39 years of my relationship with Him, I haven’t always maintained a super-tight connection. Don’t get me wrong—once I was born again, I was connected. But sometimes I was content just to appear to have a close connection, while the connection itself had become loose, casual—even sloppy. And upon closer inspection, I can see that the most satisfying times in my life have occurred when I purposefully tightened that connection.

How do you tighten the connection between yourself and God? What tends to loosen it up? What are some of the signs that you need to crank that connection more tightly? And if you’re in Christ and He’s in you, why concern yourself about this connection at all? Isn’t connection with Him a given?

The skinny is this: the connection is perfect on His end; it’s your end that needs watchful oversight, maintenance, and sometimes repair. If there’s any disconnect, it’s on your end.

Remember last week I wrote that I was bombarded by negative thoughts one snowy morning? I ran for refuge that day to a pile of devotionals, knowing in my gut that I would receive direction and help. And interestingly enough, in one way or another, out of every single entry emerged a strengthening, nutritious nugget about—you guessed it—a vital connection with God.

I’ll be writing about what I gleaned that snowy day in the next several blog entries. But tomorrow I plan to backtrack a bit and share a dream that I had sometime last year. You’ll understand why when you read “Connected to the Source”.

Dorothy

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” John 15:4