from disconnected to reconnected

Someone asked me today if I'd be willing to share any verse from my last week's bible readings that jumped out at me and was memorable. And, though I read, I was at a loss. As you all know, I don't like to make stuff up, so I just told the truth..."I haven't really had anything this week. I've felt a little disconnected." I know that statement goes against what many people tend to think about ministers and pastors. I think people assume that we must get something whenever we read the Word of God. And, I think that would probably be true some of the time--I often go in looking for that thing...that one word that will heal my hurt or encourage my soul or just make me smile--sometimes disconnect rears its ugly head. 

I know I'm not alone. There are times when, try though we may, we simply cannot seem to feel connected. I wasn't ill at ease. I still had my peace. I just didn't feel any extra "umph" in my relationship with God. It's like having a charger that has a short in the cord. No matter how much you plug it in, you fail to ever truly get your device charged up until you wiggle it around enough to reconnect the short. This works temporarily to get you charged up until you can get somewhere to replace the cord. I decided after that conversation this morning that that's what I've got to do...wiggle it around enough to reconnect my short until God's Word could come in and permanently replace the disconnect with reconnection. 

So I pulled out my Bible and said, "Lord help me see you in these words. Let me here from you today." My "wiggling" was to just keep reading to the next verse and the next passage and the book after that until the Word massaged my soul open. Sometimes you have to press past the disconnect and keep reading until you get to what is yours. Though you may be reading one devotional or reading plan, just keep reading. With that prayer and my wiggle, this is what the Lord gave me in the end:

You keep him in perfect peace

    whose mind is stayed on you,

    because he trusts in you.

4 

Trust in the Lord forever,

    for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

(Isaiah 26:3-4)

And I sat with perfect peace knowing that no matter how disconnected I feel, when I keep my eyes stayed on him, he is that "everlasting" presence in my life...that Rock from whom living water flows. 

Happy connecting/reconnecting, folks!

Blessings,

Pastor Andrea