Cordless Christians
So this is the second time that Dr. Tony Evans has motivated me to share my thoughts on this blog. The significance in this is that I do not typically prefer to listen to radio sermons; however, God has a way of grabbing my attention in the most unexpected of ways . . . .
To give you some background before I go into my rant, Dr. Evans was sharing a message on why God sometimes hides Himself from plain view; and, though it was a very good message, there was one point – rather analogy – that Dr. Evans made that resonated with me the most . . .
I think we all are familiar with the cordless telephone (or at least those of us who still have a landline telephone connection at home). The way that a cordless phone works is that the handset has a battery in it that allows it to be used without a hardwire connection. You can use your phone virtually anywhere in the house as long as that battery in the handset has a charge. But there is one shortfall of having a cordless telephone – you do have to keep the battery charged, which is done y placing the handset on its base when the phone is not in use.
Now for those of us with teenagers, we understand that something as simple as keeping the handset charged becomes a challenge. That’s because our teenagers like to talk on the phone for countless hours (or at least they used to before the advent of texting); and, they never put the handset back on the base. So several days later when we need to use the phone, we can’t. Why? Because it doesn’t have any charge . . . We can’t hear the other person on the line because the battery is dead. We are unable to hold an effective conversation and/or receive the caller’s message . . . .
Can you see where I’m going with this? Many of us, as Christians, are like the uncharged handset from the cordless phone; or, as Dr. Evans put it, we are cordless Christians – meaning we are not connected like we should be. We go to church on Sunday to get charged; but then, we’re off the hook Monday through Saturday. It’s no wonder why we are so depleted and not very “Christ-like” by the time the week ends! Don’t get me wrong, there is convenience and benefit to having a cordless phone; however, with a cordless phone comes obligation and responsibility. If you want that phone to maintain a charge, you have to consistently place it on its charger. If we, as Christians, want to receive God’s true grace, we have to consistently be connected to Him through His word, through fellowship and through prayer.
Will we get it wrong? Will we forget to “get charged”? Absolutely! But that’s the beauty of it . . . Just like with a cordless phone, even if the battery goes out, we can always put that phone back on its base and it will charge up. Of course, if you let the battery die, it will take longer for the handset to get back to full strength. That is no different with us either: the longer we go disconnect from God, the longer it will take us to replenish in our walk.
Analog phones are considered obsolete anymore. Cordless phones boast convenience and the latest in technology. But there is something about an analog phone that makes it still a very useful and relevant tool: an analog phone, though it may not always be convenient, is always connected . . . stay connected with Jesus in the same way.
Romans 10:14-17
John 15:7-8