Useless

The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website and tune into our podcast.

They exist at such regular intervals along our life’s wall-space that our eyes hardly ever actually see them anymore. In fact, as an exercise, why not take a break from reading this and find the closest one to you right now – I’m speaking, of course, about a receptacle. It’s a small grouping of three holes, two of them slotted, one of them round; one set above another maybe 12 inches off the floor covered with a small plastic plate and they literally litter our lives. It’s the familiar face on 117 volts of alternating current and it’s the hub of life for all things electric.

Now as important as receptacles are – and as meager as our lives would be without them – they are absolutely nothing without the things we plug into them. No one ever had their life significantly improved by the installation of receptacles, alone. And of course, as is often the case, the vice is versa’d so to speak (I made that up based on “vice versa”, putting it in a kind of past tense – do you like it?)… The “vice” is “versa’d” in that all the things we plug into them are likewise completely useless on their own, as well. So, our lives are improved by receptacles AND the things we plug into them.


And now consider this: all the work you do and all the effort you expend and in fact, every choice you make in your life is as meaningless as an empty receptacle unless it is “plugged in” to some sense of purpose. Work is supposed to be a 117 volt source of change into which we plug some vision of the way things can be in the future. Have you thought much about that? Or are you a wonderful wall socket, full of potential, just sitting there, quietly buzzing, crackling with 117 volts of what could happen, if only you’d plug something into it. Work without purpose is meaningless.

So… What have you plugged into it?

This Sunday, we’re turning a corner into a new kind of question for our series, “Deep Questions, Messy Answers”. For the past 4 Sundays we’ve been dealing with issues of certainty (“What about Heaven and Hell”, “Is Jesus the Only Way” and “How can we be sure?”) and this Sunday we’ll start to focus on lifestyle questions with “Do you always get a second chance and if so, how many?”

I hope to see you there and I hope you bring someone with you (because the seats are starting to fill up!)

CSW

THIS SUNDAY
What about second chances? How many do you get? In what areas can you get them? What do you need to know? You can visit our website or tune into our podcast.

NEXT SUNDAY
Where have all the miracles gone?

YOU'LL KICK YOURSELF
6 months before I left Edmonton, I made a new connection with someone who'd been there all along. It really made me kick myself for not starting that relationship sooner. Just a thought.

BIG NEWS
Have you wondered if there is a plan? In between this and the next series, let’s talk about a vision for the next 6 months.