Recently I began to picture myself as a piece of pipe, similar to what plumbers might use to connect a faucet or what electricians might use to run wires. These conduits don't really do anything, they're just passageways from one place to another. They bring water from the city to your sink. They bring wires from the road to your receptacles. Conduits have no power of their own, they don't move, they exist relatively inconspicuously and (unless something is put inside them) they're empty.
God created you and me to be conduits. He designed us specifically to move his love, his power, and his words to the world around us.We don't really have to do anything, other than allow ourselves to be used. We're "passageways" between God and our surroundings.
But, as always, we get tripped up in this pursuit. Conduits--both physical and spiritual--don't work for two different reasons:
1. They're disconnected from the source and/or the destination.
2. They're clogged with junk that's not supposed to be there.
If we remove ourselves from Christ and/or the people we're called to reach, then our effectiveness as a conduit evaporates. If we fill life with our plans, our hopes, and our dreams, there's no room left for God to work. I don't know about you, but I frequently find myself in one of those two situations. Sometimes both.
The temptation is to think, "I can do it"...but God works best when we say, "I'm a conduit."
Thank you for being a conduit today. Sometimes that old Puritan work ethic, while certainly having some value, can all too often turn into "me, me, me." It's so easy to miss what's truly important.
ReplyDeleteEach week you truely inspire me...and others too, I am certain! Thank you for putting in the hours to create these uplifting and thought provoking reflections.
ReplyDelete