Commit to Staying Plugged In This Summer

My two-year-old learned a hard lesson this week.

The iPod doesn’t work unless it’s been charged.

He doesn’t care that it has a cracked screen or that the operating system is so old we can’t download new apps to it—he loves to push the buttons and find the pictures and listen to the music.

But yesterday, all he got was a blank screen. That thing was D.E.A.D.

Unfortunately, no matter how many times I placed the iPod on the charger and tried to explain, all he wanted was to play with his toy. So he’d yank it off the charger as soon as the silver apple appeared on the screen, and then wail in anguish when it promptly disappeared.

I couldn’t make him understand that I was more than willing for him to use the iPod but until it spent some time plugged into the power source….

It. Would. Not. Work.

I wonder if God does the same thing with us. I wonder if He continues to draw us to Him. To His Word. To His house. To His people. But we are so immature, we simply can’t get it through our heads that if we continue to play and live and work without plugging in to Him that…

It. Will. Not. Work.

We will falter. We will sin. We will drift.

This may come as a shock, but we are in a battle. Spiritual warfare is all around us. And here’s the simple truth.

Christians don’t get to take the summer off.

No matter how many days we plan to spend at the lake, or the beach, or the pool, spending some time plugged into the source of Power is the only way to get through the days ahead without our screens going blank and our effectiveness for the Kingdom disappearing.

We are either drawing closer to Him or we are pulling away from Him. There is no in between.

 

Disconnecting from June-August (or, let’s call it like it really is, from May-September) and expecting to still be growing in our faith is as ludicrous as Drew believing his little hand-me-down iPod will work without spending some time on the charger.

So here’s the challenge.

Stay in the Word. Keep moving toward Him. Don’t let September roll around and be so drained you have to take until Christmas to get your spiritual strength back to where it is now.

Commit to staying plugged in this summer.

 

My dear friend, Ginger, and I are going to be working through a study on Gideon by Priscilla Shirer. (You can read the blog post from Beth Moore about it here). If you’d like some accountability (because I’m not pretending this is easy!) we’d love for you to join us. Get the book, and be ready to start next Tuesday. I’ll be blogging about it as we go through the summer.