For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. — Ephesians 5:8
I work part time cleaning a bowling alley early in the morning. Usually one or more of my children come along with me. While we are cleaning, we often listen to music. The bowling alley subscribes to music channels. Select a channel and get nonstop music of that variety. So we select 938 and listen to Christian music while we clean.
One morning, I tuned the receiver to 938, turned on the amplifier and waited for the music to come out of the speakers. Nothing happened. Something was wrong. The tuner was fine. The amplifier was fine. The volume was up. But the speakers were dead.
So naturally I went out and had a talk with those speakers. I told them that they needed to try harder to make music. I told them that I was waiting, but I wouldn’t wait forever. I reminded them of how disappointed the children would be if they didn’t start performing. I insisted that they set a goal of making some music, even just a little, in the next five minutes. I informed them that the discipline of making even just a little music every day would grow and grow in their lives until one day they just made music automatically. When they remained silent, I kicked them a couple of times just to get their attention.
Of course, everything in that last paragraph was a lie. But this is sometimes how we approach the Christian life. We so much want to act like Christians that we forget that we already are Christians. If our behavior doesn’t reflect who we are, then we need to investigate why.
In the case of the bowling alley music, I looked around and discovered why the speakers were making no music. The audio jacks and wires were connected to a CD player, not to the tuner. The speakers weren’t connected to the source. When I plugged the right wires into the amp, beautiful music came from the speakers.
And when we are properly connected to who we really are, the Christian life flows easily from who we are.
Be encouraged!
Dwight
Dwight Clough is the author of four Christian books and is an active member of Lake City Church in Madison. This devotional is also available via email and you may review the archives back to 2002. To contact Dwight or Kim, use their contact form. You may also support their ministry.