WRONG CONNECTION

WRONG CONNECTIONS
T. Wieland Allen


Every time we wanted to watch a DVD on our big TV it took at least 10 to 15 minutes for Hubby to be able to get the DVD player to work with the big digital TV. Frustrating comes close to being an adequate enough word for what went on in our home. It was immensly frustrating for Hubby and frustrating for me as I sat there calmly waiting for the movie or family recording to appear on the screen. I can proudly say one thing for Hubby, he was tempted to give up every time but he never did. Magically, somehow, he would be able to push random buttons and the long awaited picture would finally appear. Every time Hubby professed that NOW he knew how to work the contraption.
Every time I cautioned Hubby to write down the proper steps so that he would know what to do the next time we decided to watch a movie. Every time Hubby professed that he would not forget. I never guessed that every time he had success in the endeavor it was purely a lucky combination of button pushing magic and he was counting on his random button pushing to accomplish the deed every time.
The last time it happened I told Hubby that we would sit down and read the instruction book together and go step by step until we had the mission accomplished. We never did take the time to do that and, boy, am I glad we didn't . Knowing what we know now, it would have ended up with insurmountable frustration for both of us, angry words and sure defeat.
Our oldest son was visiting one night with his children and we decided to watch some family videos that we had transferred to DVDs. As we all patiently waited for the beginning of the video I cautioned everyone that it might take a while to get the thing loaded. Sure enough, within a few minutes we were in the same frustrating activity with Hubby randomly pushing buttons, hoping that his luck would be good this time and the images would magically appear on the screen.
No such luck. Within a few minutes the room became empty of the teenagers who are not commonly known for their patience. They are never rude with their impatience, there were other important mechanical devices awaiting them that they knew how to expertly operate on their own.
Our son got the instruction book out, willing to help his dad figure out why it would take a computer whiz to operate the DVD player. So we had two men working on it now. I would say that it suddenly became clear to our son what the problem might be, but it wasn't suddenly with lightning speed. It was 15 or 20 minutes later when the only people in the room were me and the two men with instruction books in hand. Teenagers had vanished from the room long ago.
Finally our son remarked, "Dad, you have the wrong cord connecting the DVD player to the TV." Sure enough, two years of frustration was wiped out by that revelation, that the wrong cord was connecting the two machines. Now it truly was apparent that any success we had in the past was luck or magic. How Hubby ever managed to get it to work in the past was pure luck, random acts of magic for sure.
Our son attached the right cord and it took only two button pushes to get the movie to play. Success was sweet.
I began to think how often in life we have the wrong connections but we keep expecting life to get easier. Often we are connected to the wrong friends who are demanding and they cost us our peace, our joy and our love.
Other times we are connected to the wrong avenues of entertainment, ingesting damaging information into our minds. The effects of that kind of entertainment will result in bad thoughts, bad attitudes and possibly bad actions.
A more damaging cord is the one connecting us to limited human reasoning. Human reasoning can only go so far in helping us solve our problems. There is spiritual help available from God who has a complete view of things from His dimension and He knows the ins and outs of every troubling situation that we encounter. He has what is called supernatural spiritual power that He can give to us through His Connecting Cord who is named the Holy Spirit.
I tried for years, searching for answers to my problems, endeavoring to have them supplied through human knowledge and reasoning. It never sufficed. It only put Bandaids on spiritual problems.
When I found the Holy Spirit, the proper connecting cord to God, then supernatural wisdom, insight and solutions to problems began to flood into my mind. The strange thing is that I immediately recognized them as Truth because Truth always sets a person free, and I became more and more free of the limits of human knowledge.
I often think about the life changing time when was I sitting in my living room faced with a decision of whether to ask God for His Holy Spirit to enter into me, connecting me to God in a supernatural way. As I was contemplating whether or not to make such a dramatic and life changing decision, these words ticker taped across my mind, "You can continue to live in familiar garbage or you can choose to have unfamiliar gold."
It only took a second for me to choose to shuck the pig pen and it's garbage where I was barely existing, and I made the decision to have God's gold. I immediately was covered with an invisible comforter, a tangible feeling of supernatural comfort. The garbage immediately fell off. That was only the beginning of a joyful, love-filled, exiting life.
When you have the proper cord to connect you to Life's solutions, just like the proper cord our son attached between the DVD player and the TV, everything falls into place and the images become clear on the screen of life.
It's interesting that our son provided the proper connection for the mechanical devices, just like God's son Jesus provided the proper connection to Him when He went to the Father and sent the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to be available to men.
No wonder it's called the FULL GOSPEL, because God provides everything we need to have fullness of life through the proper connecting cord, His Holy Spirit, who connects us to God's love, through which His wisdom, His insights, His knowledge and His gifs flow to us.
Seek God and His proper connecting cord, His Spirit, and everything you need will be supplied to you.