Recharge

Friday:
School got out last week, so I've been at home this week with the dude, putting him through potty boot camp.  I've had a few God whispers through that process, like what a proud parent God must be when we have victories.  And the loving forgiveness (and probably a little disappointment) He must feel when we mess up.  But I figured most people wouldn't want to read a full blog post about potty training.

For that reason, I've been waiting on my next scattered moment, the moments that drive me crazy but at the same time teach me lessons and put me in my place.  And today, I got one.  I mentioned in my first post that I was using an old laptop with an exploded battery that had to stay plugged in.  It isn't a huge issue except that the charging cable is magnetic and easily gets bumped and then you have to restart everything.   So thankfully, it's summer and I got to check out my work laptop.  Well, this morning I was ready to sit down and do some work and the laptop was totally dead.   I had just charged it yesterday, but the charger was nowhere to be found.  Here, I had this perfectly useful tool that could help me accomplish anything I needed or wanted to do, but without power, it was useless.  Dead.  And it occurred to me, or maybe God whispered to me, that that's exactly what we are.  We are God's tool, capable of doing anything He wants us to do.  But without being plugged in to Him, we are useless.  As good as dead.   

Saturday:
That's where I stopped yesterday.  I felt like I was being pressed to write on this topic of recharging, but I was really struggling with where to go with it.  So I just let it sit and marinate.  

A few minutes ago I got a text that our church homegroup was meeting tomorrow and discussing the next chapter in the book we are reading.  So I after things settled down, I sat down and read the chapter.  On Saturday night.  At 9 p.m.  Then it hit me.  I am that person...the one that waits until Saturday night to prepare, like I'm studying for a test.  Here's the shameful truth.  This was the first thing I had done to recharge this week.   As Christians, we know what to do to refuel daily:   1. Read the Word (Hebrews 4:12).  2.Talk to Jesus (1Thessalonians 5:17).   I am quick to make excuses about why I haven't done that this week.  But the excuses don't matter.  These are the things that plug us back in, that recharge us, and equip us to be useful for God.  So I challenge you to ask yourself how often you have been recharging.  

And maybe we are all at different places.  For example, when my phone sits on the table all day untouched, the battery holds up for a long time. It just needs to recharge at night.  But when I've had a busy day and it's really been through a lot, it may need to recharge several times.  Then there is my poor 10 year-old laptop that is so broken it has to stay plugged in directly and hold on for dear life to even stay on.  See where I'm going?  Life means we have times when we are untouched and can keep going a long time on one charge.  And it also means there are times we are so broken we have to be plugged in directly to even get out of the bed.

I suppose a good test of whether we are recharging often enough would be measuring our output.  There is a direct relationship between our power source and what we are accomplishing for God.  We can take it back to the vine.


John 15:5  I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Jesus says that if we are plugged into him, we will be productive.  That's pretty black and white.  Staying powered up=being useful for God.  And in case there is any more question, the fruits are spelled out in detail in Galatians 5.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

I also think it's important to emphasize that these aren't attributes we are supposed to try to attain, rather they will appear in us when we are properly connected to Jesus.

So, in my effort to be transparent, I shamefully admit that I need to recharge more.  I need to be better at my "dailies."  I want to be useful and productive for whatever God needs to me to be.  I'm challenging myself to read my Bible every day in the month of June.  And I don't mean just skimming through a verse just to check it off my list (been there, done that), but really read and really listen.  Every day.  Maybe re-read one of the gospels.  The book of Proverbs has 31 chapters..start a day early and you'll have one for every day of the month.  I'm not even sure what I'm going to read yet, but you really can't go wrong, can you?  Who is with me?