Disconnections

I decided to make an investment in our home last week when our youngest daughter and her family were visiting us.  Since her husband owns and operates a home entertainment installation business, he and I talked about how to improve our home sound system.  Being as the home was already set up with stereo speakers in the ceiling in the living room and in the garage/workshop, it would not be too time consuming or expensive (relatively speaking…) to upgrade.  

So, after looking at different possibilities we decided on a Pioneer multi-room Hi-Res Audio receiver, a six channel speaker/room selector, a smart remote control to handle all of our devices, stereo speakers over the backyard deck and a new Sony Blu-ray player.  I had peace about all this as our home entertainment system is our major form of recreation with all that is currently going on with my wife’s health.  And I have to admit that the results are stunning.  While it is not actually a surround sound system it is stereo and makes you feel like you are right in the middle of the action!

With this set up we have access to satellite TV, audio streaming services, online programming such as Netflix, Hulu and MLB TV and the ability to play the apps from off my iPhone through Air Play.  On Sunday morning we hooked up with the live streaming of the service from our home church in Tulsa and it felt like we were sitting right in the middle of their 5000 seat auditorium!  And the outdoor speakers are great as we sit out back in the cool of the evening enjoying the solitude of our yard with a background of Classical music floating through the air in unison with the birds singing from the surrounding forest. 

We did run into one glitch though immediately after the system was set up.  After we had a family dinner last week and with multiple parties attempting to hook up their Bluetooth, the system suddenly went down.  Jeremiah spent a good amount of time the next day troubleshooting, including the hard wiring to our internet router and after checking everything,he simply unplugged the entire system for thirty seconds and whalla… everything reset and has worked perfectly since!

I must admit how fast it was to get spoiled with this system.  Even though it was only up and running for less than a day, I found myself upset and a little lost at being disconnected from all its features and the advantageous connections to modern technology that it affords.  It was like I was disconnected from the world!

In my last post I mentioned how our spiritually infused inner-man has the ability to see, hear, taste, smell and touch in order to assist us in interpreting the daily activities of our lives.  When those spiritual senses are blocked or resisted, it can feel like we are suddenly disconnected from God and His perfect insights.  In my personal experience, it is as if folks who are disconnected “See, but they’re blind.  They hear, but don’t listen.  They don’t even (seem to) try to understand.” (Matthew 13:13 God’s Word ©)

Our little example of our entertainment system being disconnected from its online presence got me to asking the Lord if there were any areas in my own life where I am disconnected from His senses and from His grace and lovingkindness.  I Peter 2:9 informs us that Papa God has called us out of darkness and placed us into His marvelous light… and that is exactly where I want to be 24/7, 365 days of the year… wouldn’t you agree?  I don’t ever want to find myself disconnected from Him!

In our journey over these last few years I have seen family and friends who never missed a beat when they found out about Piper’s needs.  They immediately stepped into the sacrificial giving mode of operation.  Others disconnected for a short time while they dealt with their own feelings over the tough situation, worked through them and then came to our aid.  There were others though, who are still somewhat disconnected from us.  I have found their disconnect difficult to deal with as the absence of their voices and their lives from us highlights the pain of the personal connection of oneness that the disease wants to work in between my wife and I as it attempts to steal her identity.

At a time like this… I cannot afford to be disconnected from the Zoë life and light of Papa God in my life… and either can you!  The neat thing is that it doesn’t take a lot of work to reconnect with Him in any area of our lives.  Just like we discovered the simple solution of shutting off, taking a thirty second pause and then turning the power back on to reset our entertainment system… all we need to do when spiritual disconnections occur is to stop and pause while you reach back out to Papa God.  Then yield the disconnection to Him and turn your system back on.  When you do, you’ll find that you and Papa God are reset and you are ready to receive the insights that He has for your life. 

I enjoy having an online presence with heaven… What about you?  Have a terrific weekend, and as you do, keep asking yourself… “How am I expecting to ensure my connection to heaven today?”