I have had a pretty frustrating week. My Internet access stopped working on Monday. I have grown accustomed to instant access to a world beyond my physical location. Through the Internet we stay in touch with friends in many countries, as well as in many states.
Through the Internet we get the latest information on subjects of interest, or obtain current or long-range weather reports. Via the Internet we also send and receive many emails and files. Well, all of that came to a screeching halt on Monday. While my computer continues to function, I no longer have access to the Internet.
Loss of connectivity made me feel isolated, uncertain, and frustrated. I looked at my modem with three out of four lights lit. It had power. It had DSL connection through the phone line. It had a physical connection to my computer. But the light indicating connection to the Internet remained dark. I spent numerous hours on three different days with different service technicians trying to get the modem to connect in reality, rather than just electronically. We were not successful.
I had a good laugh with one of the technicians in the middle of my grief. She said, “It is like the modem is physically connected, but there is no brain activity.” I laughed and replied, “That is too often the story of my life! I am physically present but my brain is elsewhere.” We both had a good laugh over that.
However, there is a great object lesson in this modem scenario. With a cursory look the modem appears to be functioning and alive. The phone company, seeing it returning their signal, believes it is alive. The modem sees itself as well. When you re-boot it, it will go through all the steps required in being back to functioning form, until it gets to the last step of really being connected to the Internet.
I thought of what the technician had said. In many ways the modem was “alive” and “active.” However, in the one very important area for which it exists, i.e. the function of connecting a computer to other computers over the Internet, it was dead. It looked alive. It acted alive. But it was functionally dead. The lights were on, but nobody was home.
The Bible says that until we establish connection with Jesus, we are dead. This sounds very oxymoronic. How can a person who is active, walking around, and has most of his/her lights on, be dead? My response is: “How can a modem that looks intact and is connected electronically to the phone company like a fully functional one, be dead?” Yet it is. How many people today know they are physically alive and physically here, but have no awareness of God or of the life that could be theirs by connecting to Him through Jesus?
Nicodemus (cf. John 3) was a rich and powerful man, a ruler of the Jews. He was also a moral and religious man. Yet, he sensed that something was missing from His life. Most of his lights were on, but connectivity to God was missing. He came to Jesus to get some questions answered. In John 3:5-7 (HCSB) we read: “Jesus answered, “I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again.”
Life is more than physical existence. We need to be inhabited by the Spirit of God, i.e., to be born again into connectivity with God. Then when we are re-booted and get to the last step of connecting to God, we become aware that we are indeed connected to God and God’s whole universe opens up to us. When we are actively connected to God, we can begin to fulfill the functions for which we exist.
Are you like my modem? Are you physically alive, but internally empty? Are you connected to religious people or institutions, but not yet connected to God Himself? Are you going through life with an awareness of physical existence, but no awareness of being connected to God or to life in the kingdom of God?
If so, unlike my modem, you have a choice. You can invite Jesus to come into your life, to give you new birth and connectivity to God. When you do, a whole new universe will open up to you. God’s kingdom makes the Internet pale by comparison.
