Plug into the Holy Spirit
Have you noticed that more and more people seem to be having trouble keeping their phones charged? I went into a great new coffee shop next to the district office yesterday after an appointment with our district superintendent, Dawn Taylor Storm, and noticed that almost everyone was charging their phones while they sipped their coffee. Outlets and power cords were everywhere. As I walked out with my dark roast in hand, I saw someone get into their car and immediately plug their phone into charge.
My guess is that this has happened to you more times than you care to think about: You unlock your phone and see that the battery icon is in the red and the phone says that you need to charge before it shuts down. If there is a symbol of this present age it is the low battery icon on our smartphones. We are in constant motion, trying to do more and more, be more and more places, and meet the ever increasing demands on our lives. We keep adding more stuff to our task lists and schedule and, much like our phones, there just doesn’t seem to be enough power to sustain us. We keep getting the “battery critically low” message earlier and earlier in the day.
When this happens with our phones we usually have the good sense to plug them in and top them off so we can keep texting, answering emails, looking at Instagram, and listening to our favorite playlists. If we don’t connect them to power, they will enter low power mode - where the screen dims, the processor slows down, and the cellular radios look for updates less frequently. If we persist in our usage of the device without charging, it will eventually shut down and refuse to power up until it has been plugged into power long enough for the battery to regain a sufficient charge. After missing a critical text or being stuck in a waiting room with nothing to do because our phone battery has died, we learn a fundamental truth of this technological age: Charge your battery whenever you can. It never hurts to plug in and top off your power reserves because you never know what life will throw at you next.
So why do we ignore this when it comes to our spiritual lives? Why do we push ourselves until our souls are completely drained and we have nothing left to offer ourselves, the people around us, and God? Why do we refuse to look for a power source? All too often we seem too content to wander about in a “spiritual low power mode” with the battery light of our souls flashing red. When this happens, our ability to function normally is severely impaired. The symptoms are easy to spot. Our personal lives are out of whack. Our relationships with the people we love are frayed. God feels remote. There is no joy to life. We just shuffle from one task or activity to another.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way because there is a power source readily available to us. As followers of Jesus we have access to an inexhaustible supply of energy for our souls. It is called the Holy Spirit and Jesus offers the Spirit to us as a gift. It’s time to stop living with our spiritual batteries in the red. Seek God’s Holy Spirit in worship, prayer, and reflection and discover that there is more than enough power in Him to face whatever life sends your way.
Grace and Peace,
John