A True Confession

by Jan
from Virtuous Daughters, June 2007~Volume 7, Number 3

Recently our internet connection was down for five days. Five LONG days. I am embarrassed to admit how much frustration this caused certain family members, myself included. The first day wasn’t too bad. Oh, okay, the internet is down—we will be back online soon. The second day, hmmm . . . what’s wrong here? The third day, man this is crazy, what’s wrong with this company? Whose fault is this anyway? This is costing us money!! That is because my husband receives his work assignments via computer, and he missed out on some work that would have been worth $1,000 to our family. The fourth and fifth day, we just went around moaning, openly admitting how much we felt “disconnected.” And then joy of joys, the internet reappeared, and we again felt “connected” to the outside world, and balance was restored!

Now of course, we were always connected to the outside world. We don’t live in a cave. During that time, newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV were still available to us. We had electricity! Yet we still felt unconnected.
 
This experience caused me to think about our connection to God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. What if someone came up to us and said, “You are not to read your Bible or pray for the next five days”? How much would that bother us? How long would it take for our anxiety level to rise? Have you ever had the experience of looking for your Bible on Sunday morning, and then discovering it in the van, where it had been lying all week since you drove home from church the previous Sunday? How often do we spend our days rushing about, with maybe a quick wake-up prayer in the morning, followed by a rushed closing prayer before sleep overtakes us? How often do we read our Bible with little concentration because our minds are elsewhere?
 
How quickly something can become an idol in our life. Jim Sammons defines idolatry as expecting people, possessions, or positions to do for me what only God can do. Only God can bring true lasting love, joy, peace, fulfillment, salvation, etc. And certainly our computers will not do that!!! Godliness comes from spending time with God. May our lives reflect the portion of time we spend with Jesus. May we guard this time jealously. May we not be deceived by any idols, and may we always and continually feel connected to the true Source.
 
I would love to sign this anonymously, but I’ll put my name on it . . .