Connection

I work several part-time jobs. One of them is repairing the machines and industrial robots at a local factory. The job description is called industrial maintenance. Sometimes it's easy, and sometimes not.

(This past week's repair was very physically challenging, required two full days to complete, and left me greasy, sore, and grumpy. Then about 5:30 this morning, I realized that I forgot to grease key components as I was reassembling it, and so I have to go back tomorrow morning to fix it. Except... I am also scheduled to work another job tomorrow, over two and a half hours drive away. Greasing the components should be easy, right? "Come on Morty! In and out! 20 minute adventure!" as my son likes to say, quoting a line from a favorite Rick and Morty episode where our heroes leave for an "easy" side quest and arrive back home three days later, gasping for breath and having barely escaped with their lives...

A previous week, we had a different problem. One of the robots stopped working and we narrowed it down to one of the electronic control modules that was fixed to the rack inside the electrical cabinet. This particular robot is a five-axis stone cutter, with a big diamond saw blade. Each axis of movement is controlled by a separate module, which hang together on a rack. Electricians were called on two separate days, a replacement module was installed, but it still wasn't working. It was in position, but nothing! Finally, the official service technician came out, spent a couple of days on it, and finally determined the connection was poor at the back of the module, where it clamped onto the bar that supplied high voltage electricity to the row of modules. He got it fixed, and we were back in operation. Cool. Not my problem anymore.

However, God brought it to my attention again a week or so later. I was praying in bed and God showed me the module. It was installed in the proper position and a little white light in the back directed my attention to the clamps. The light was on, but nothing was happening out front. No little colored lights were blinking. The module was dead, dead, dead.

It was a spiritual analogy. We can be in the right place, and in the right position. The little white LED is on in the back, indicating SOMETHING is going on, but up front there is no power for the machine to do it's job. The module can't fulfill its function-- its purpose-- without a strong connection. There's no power without a strong connection.

Lots of people go to church, but they're just there. They are just hanging around. They are present, certainly, but they don't have power in their lives because they don't have a strong connection to the power source. They have no real relationship with God. They don't have strong connection, and so they have no power in their lives and are spiritually useless.

As I think back on this machine I note that though these modules look alike, they are different internally and each has a specific function and purpose. But if they don't hang together in connection with the power source AND each other, then the machine won't function properly. (Or at all!) Our church body is like that. We are made for community. Each of us has a function, and we are designed to "hang together." We are designed to work together to fulfill our purpose (1 Corinthians 12:12-31.) Together, we can do great things.

So, get a good connection with God and with each other.

Fulfill your function.