Contact or Connection....

A few thousand years ago as Jesus was on his way to heal a sick child, there was a multitude of people surrounding him to such a degree that the people were pressing in upon him and jostling against him.
No doubt Jesus was possibly even being pushed along by such a large crowd as people thronged about him and were making physical contact with him. But one person in the midst of this crowd, a desperate woman, touched him and something miraculous took place. When Jesus asked “who touched me.?”, the disciples just didn’t get it. What a crazy question to ask, after all everybody is touching him, he’s in the midst of a crowd for goodness sake.!!
But Jesus was not asking who it was that had made contact with him, he was asking who it was had made connection with him.
Contact and Connection. Two totally different things. Every week most of us diligently attend our local churches and may even attend a homegroup or similar meeting during the week. Every day we read our Bibles, spend time alone with God, and meditate upon the things of God throughout the day as time allows.
But are we just making contact, or are we making connection.?
We need Gods grace every day of our lives, but what we often fail to realize is that God’s grace is more than just a fact, it is a force. God’s grace is more than just forgiveness from sin, it is the power to overcome sin. God’s grace is more than just a gift, it is a powerful enabling. God’s grace carries supernatural power that changes our life. When we receive Gods grace, virtue flows. Power is transferred from Him to us. Miracles take place when grace flows freely. But to receive his grace there must be connection. I’ve discovered that merely keeping contact with God just makes me religious. Keeping in contact with God eases my conscious, but doesn’t cleanse it. Keeping in contact with God makes me feel spiritual but inwardly I remain thirsty and dry. Keeping in contact with God robs me of power and authority because I live in a knowledge of Grace but not in the reality and experience of it. But when I make connection with God, virtue flows, power is released and I am anointed. When I make connection with God his grace is sufficient for every task. When I make connection with God, duty turns to beauty and service turns to passion.

God of Mystery

I want a God of deep mystery. A God who knows how to play hide and seek. A God that steps out suddenly from some place unknown to reveal His glory for but a moment, only to vanish again into the darkness. I need a God that will always have something new to reveal of Himself when and as He sees fit, so that the thrill of the hunt goes ever on, and the haunting ever remains, calling me ever forward, luring me onward to what lies ahead, always craving the invisible that is seen only with the eye of faith. I want a God that draws out the power of His Spirit within me, a God that knows my limits and pushes me beyond them so that I’m eternally desperate for Him. I need a God that has hidden treasures deep underground and not just scattered on the surface. I need a God whose treasure map is a little burned at the edges and difficult to decipher, and even though that sacred search for hidden treasure occasionally leads me to precious stones of great worth, I also pray that there always remains an untapped vein, an unlimited supply of precious metal that will always remain deep below the surface. Because I cannot imagine for a moment that this life could be but a tenth as fulfilling were it not for the joy of the journey, the thrill of the hunt, and the desperation of the passionate who in pursuit of the treasure, finds that in its finality it but brings us to the person of God Himself.

Warm Winds and Timber Fences

I was staying at a farm somewhere in country Victoria. Who these people were I did not know or just do not recall. What I do recall is this: a strong wind was blowing….really blowing.
One of those hot dry winds that slowly knocks the life out of the grass, burning it to a dull grey, turning what only yesterday was lush and green into weathered hay that has lost its goodness.
I climbed the fence. One of those timber fences. A post every six feet or so, and three evenly spaced railings running horizontally along its length.
I stood on the second railing and supported the tops of my legs with the railing at the top of the fence. It was flat and stiff, easily strong enough to support the weight of a six year old boy.

Leaning into the wind and stretching as far forward as I dared, arms flailing to keep balance, I let the full force of the wind push back my hair. Within moments my eyes began to water, causing me to turn my head as I struggled to breathe. The warmth on my face seemed to travel. After hitting my face it journeyed on down through my chest to the rest of my body, lodging at the extremities of both my hands and feet. I felt strangely serene, at one with the moment, with a new awareness of everything around me, and yet I was oblivious to all but myself, the fence, the wind and the moment. The moment seemed to register something deep inside me. Suddenly I was in tune with something so familiar and yet I could not place it. I had discovered a secret. A secret I had known all along but had never properly told it to myself.

For what seemed to be the first time I became acutely aware that I was truly alive. I was an entity. I was a living and breathing person. I was a myself. A me. I was alone with a fence and the wind, and I felt no need for anything more. Life was complete. I had found what I had not even been looking for but had wanted all along. This was how it was meant to be. This was life before the fall. This was living before the sickness, this was life without indifference, this was life without needs. The mystery of the moment held me spellbound. I was experiencing a piece of forever trapped in realtime. I had found freedom at the top of a fence. The wind was blowing “forever” right into my face. Eternity was watering my eyes, filling my lungs and whispering in my ears. “I will always be with you, I will keep you safe, I will keep you warm, I will bring you joy”

I stood there on that fence, the wind in my face, leaning forward, tackling it head on. And I listened. Everything behind me was silenced by the force of that which was coming at me. I could only hear the future, I could only hear what was the roar of my destiny. So I stood on that fence, no longer hearing the past, but bent toward the future, with the warmest of feelings and the deepest of joys. Was the rest of life going to be this easy.? Could it possibly be this much fun.? Or was this only a taste, just a whiff, just a glimpse, just a tease of how things were really meant to be.?