Check Your Connections

Romans 15:13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

One missionary tells of his experience about being assigned a car that would not start without a push. After pondering this problem, he devised a plan. He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some children out of class, and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years.

When a new missionary came to take over his station, he proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started. As he was talking, the young missionary picked up the hood only to find that the only trouble was a loose cable. He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, pushed the switch, and the engine roared to life.

For two years, needless trouble had become routine — but the power was there all along.

Hmmm. How many of us have a loose connection today? I know I do. I think we need to check under our hoods and examine what's loose. How often do we find a way to get around the problem rather than find the solution? Is it really easier to live adjusting our lives to the problem rather than fixing it? Sometimes we do simply accept the problem rather than take the time to examine and correct it. As an example, the storm door going to my back porch didn’t shut well. If you didn’t make a point of pushing it just right, it would not catch properly and would pop open. At the time, the grandkids were living in the home, too, so you can only imagine how often that door didn’t close right and, consequently, how often “Shut the door right!” rang out. One day, sheer frustration motivated me to fix the door problem. It took less than 10 minutes to make the adjustments needed…that’s it, less than 10 minutes of focused time and attention to correct the annoying door issue. Color me disgusted! All the angst and frustration over that stupid little door issue could have been avoided had the time to actually address it rather than accept it had been spent.

What other issues in our lives are just ignored or shrugged off even though we know things are not aligned to what is godly and right? It’s rather like speeding, isn’t it? We drive along thinking a few miles over the speed limit isn’t any big deal and before you know it, you’re 10 miles an hour over the limit. We justify it thinking it’s okay because we have to keep up with speeding traffic, right? If everyone else is speeding, then surely we must, as well. If everyone else commits adultery, then we must, too? If everyone else lies, then no big deal for us too, huh? When our connection to the Lord and godly living isn’t tightened and focused, we quickly get to the point where making those adjustments are accepted as a standard way of life. A little town named Sodom comes to mind……. 

Whatever our problems are today, the power is there for us to utilize. It's only a loose connection keeping us from putting that power to work! We need to be hungering and thirsting for that bond, that union, that connection with the Lord.