Connections

Thursday will mark the beginning of a very big weekend for The Salvation Army, not just in Melbourne, but right around the Australia Southern Territory!!

This year, in addition to the regular commissioning, ordination, appointment and sending out ceremonies, the Salvos are holding a big conference with lots of speakers covering a broard range of topics all related to The Salvation Army connecting with the communities around us.

This whole connections theme got me thinking...

Humans are social beings, admittedly some are more or less social than others, but we all depend on each other in some way or another.

We are all looking for ways to feel connected to others, some are positive ways, while others ways of seeking connection seem to do more damage or harm than they do good.

In the same way, I wonder whether some of our searching for connections with others is really a means of searching for a connection with God?

In Genesis 1: 18 we see that God acknowledges that it is not good for Adam to be alone, so He creates Eve to be Adam's companion. This is the first community, the first connection.

Later in Genesis chapter three we see the first in a long series of disconnections when Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

We see Adam and Eve and consequently all of humanity become disconnected from God from each other and from the earth they live on.

From this point on humanity has been seeking to reconnect. We have been seeking to reconnect of a spiritual level, we have been seeking to reconnect on a relational level and we have been seeking to reconnect on an environmental level.

Now admittedly not all people are seeking reconnection on all of these levels at the same time, but, if we are honest, we are all seeking connection in one way or another.

The good news is that God has made reconnection possible!!!

God became human, in the form of Jesus. God walked the earth as a human, grew up, went through all of the things that regular humans of His day went through, taught us the best way to live in connection with others, and then died inone of the most torturous barabic ways imaginable so that we might be able to connect with God in a personal way, without the need to present him animal sacrifices or go through a third party to speak and hear Him.

In what ways in your life are you seeking connection?

How connected are you?

How connected are you ready to be with God?

Something to think about.

I also just want to take the time to say good luck to the cadets and lieutennants who are being commissioned this weekend and let you know that you are being prayed for.

God Bless You All