Disconnect and your laptop may have 2 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours of battery life left before the screen goes blank, and, unless your document is saved, it gets dumped. Other electronics and appliances may have a shorter ‘unplugged’ life. Maybe none. Maybe they are just immediately dead when unplugged.
Jesus and the disciples address a disconnected people. Somewhere between belief and behavior, knowledge and life, life got disconnected. We see it when Jesus heals a man, and the community that says it believes in healing gets disturbed. We see it when Peter and John offer the healing power of God and a man gets healed at the gate called beautiful. And the reaction from the religious community was anything but beautiful.
So where do things get disconnected? We could look at this question all day, and only get a detailed history of how organizations die, how they lose life-giving power and become life-draining and powerless. But a better, more productive question is: how do we come to life?
Jesus blows away the ‘comfort zone’ of the disconnected life. He comes and demonstrates the power-filled life. He lives connected to his Father: prays unceasingly, acts to address brokenness. He lives a connected life. It upsets the status-quo everywhere he goes. It makes people examine the hidden walls, disconnecting misconceptions about how life is to be lived.
If our name is associated with His, how much are we like Christ? Does the disconnected life get addressed and upset? Do people get connected with the giver of abundant life? The road to the connected life is a wild ride. Hang on and go for it! It is worth it!
Who wants to live asleep when you can be awake? Why sit on the sidelines when you can be fully engaged? Why stay lethargic when you can have the energy of the life giver? Why expect someone else to be responsible for your spiritual walk when you can face the Lord and say, “Here I am, send me!?” Live the wild life fully connected, fully alive!
