About two years ago I had the honor of journeying high into the Himalayas to a remote village nestled by what is referred to as the Mountain of the Gods. These hard working people live a simple but demanding life. With no electricity or what the Western world would see as necessities, most homes are small huts. But almost every home boasted of a tiny solar panel on its roof. I asked, “What value was such a seemingly insignificant panel?” The answer was, “occasionally maybe for a lamp into the night but mainly to recharge cell phones.”
I giggled on the inside and in my thought-conversation with God, I expressed my amazement that while food alone was hard to obtain, a cell phone would rank so high in value. But then felt corrected by God – we all want to be connected. We want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We search for significance of belonging.
I would have a tiny solar panel if I lived there too, because I want to be connected. At the writing of this article our internet has been down for a couple of days and I am frustrated. I enjoy having emails and instant messaging at my fingertips. I love being connected.
God loves us, Him and me, to be connected. The fact is that He is always here, with me and in me, but I can choose to thwart being connected to Him. I can turn off my communication with Him. So how do I maintain a full clear connection with God? Because you see, it is a core desire and need to know Him. Connection with Him is my life; He gives me significance and purpose. I belong with Him. So what’s my solar panel, my always charged cell phone with God?
At six years old I became God’s daughter. I don’t know how or when, maybe it was just the simplicity of a child’s faith, but I decided that if God was with me and in me and He knew my thoughts anyway, and I was supposed to pray without ceasing (that’s what the Bible says), then I would just turn my thoughts to conversations with God. So no matter if I’m thinking good or bad thoughts, I have trained my brain to make them into a conversation with God. And you know what? It is not a one way conversation! Multiple times I’ve been thinking with God and my thoughts consist of questions. And just when I take a breath in my bombarding thoughts, it’s like a gentle breeze blows across my heart and a whole other thought enters my mind. It brings gentle peace or laughter or solutions – it’s God thinking WITH me. We are connected and all is well.
We pray that as we (you, me, and the rest of the P.I. family) connect with people in the nations that we serve as that tiny seemingly insignificant solar panel to strengthen, re-charge, and establish their connection to Father God. That connection is worth everything; it fulfills our hearts to belong for significance. But our main joy is that connecting people to the Father makes Him smile. That’s the best! Let’s connect.
