Let us, then, feel very sure that we can come before God’s throne where there is grace. There we can receive mercy and grace to help us when we need it. – Hebrews 4:16 (NCV)
I have a phone charger that I keep in my office at church. I keep it there so that I’m sure that if my phone battery is low when I get to the office I will be able to recharge it. It’s the charger that came with the phone, which I’ve had for about two years. Over the past couple of months, though, it has become much less effective. The USB port in the phone seems to be having trouble keeping plugged in. That means that often I think my phone is charging, but when I check the battery level is actually lower than when I plugged it in. It looks connected, but as I pick up the phone the cord falls out easily. To get it to charge properly, I have to make sure that the cord is fully and firmly connected to the phone and not simply sitting there appearing to be connected.
How much of our lives do we spend appearing to be connected, but not actually properly coupled to a power source? We might know that our battery is running low, and might take actions that should allow us to recharge, but we don’t make sure that the power is actually flowing. In particular spiritually, we can easily fall into going through the motions of doing what we assume are the right things to do to be connected with God – prayer, worship, service, etc. – rather than focusing on whether we are actually connected to God. What might it look like to double check that our cord is firmly set? With the phone it is a tricky balance to get the connection to stay; so too devotionally it is not a matter of plugging in and forgetting about it. That is, it is not so much about making sure to do all the right actions. Rather, within the devotional moments that we take we must make sure that we are set properly. We need to be ready to receive the grace that God is constantly sending. That means having our mindset prepared for it.
This is the value of gathering in worship each week and receiving the Eucharist together. That becomes our touchstone, a gift given to us to re-frame our senses to be aware of the presence of Christ around us. It becomes our moment for recognizing that Christ comes to us and energizes us. That allows us to make sure that we are connected for the rest of the week to be recharged spiritually to face the challenges of the week and follow Christ boldly.