Clay in the Hands

One of the things the pandemic brought about in church life is the move to an online presence. As things shut down and everyone was forced into isolation, groups could not gather. Prior to the pandemic, gathering as a group was somewhat of a big deal! The weekly gathering of the family was the primary focus of the church – most every church.

I will address the importance of the gathering in my next post, but today, I want to follow the thought from my last post of being stretched.

Each pastor in America had to quickly become a “televangelist.” Our church was no different. Overnight, I went from preaching to faces and bodies in the room to preaching to a camera! For a communicator, that is not an easy transition – or at least it was not for someone of my competency level. But apart from the difference in how I communicated, there were other issues that arose quickly – the most crucial was the internet connection. All of the sudden, bandwidth became an important word in our conversations.

Because our services had been on local television for years, we had the equipment in place to stream our services. But what we did not have was the bandwidth to actually stream. Steps were taken to increase our internet service to take care of that issue. Once the bandwidth was increased, one of our issues was resolved.

There is a similarity in our journey in The Way. We encounter opportunities each day for us to be light and love – to live as Jesus would live. But we are always pushed and pulled by other pressures in our lives – pressures that distract and take up bandwidth that could otherwise be used to serve Jesus better.

I have lived long enough to realize that the pressures of this life are not going away. We can learn to minimize them occasionally, but we will never be free from them. So we have two choices. We can do nothing and simply allow the pressures of life to minimize our effectiveness or we can increase our bandwidth.

When we spend time with Jesus, in his word and in prayer, in silence and reflection, his Spirit goes to work on us increasing our ability to follow him effectively. Jesus expressed the idea of connection in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” It is all about the connection!

When our church was forced to stream our services, we discovered quickly that the connection was vital to success. It is the same with our spiritual walk – our connection to Jesus is key!

So today, put space in your day to spend time with Jesus and allow him to increase your bandwidth.