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We need connection to live

Sundays are a good day for connection. I think that’s why God set the day aside and attached a commandment to it. It’s because we need connection. Our spirits were made for connection. Isolate us for long enough and we become little Ted Kaczynskis* – caught up in a world that doesn’t work. &nbs…
By Seth Barnes
Sundays are a good day for connection. I think that’s why God set the day aside and attached a commandment to it. It’s because we need connection. Our spirits were made for connection. Isolate us for long enough and we become little Ted Kaczynskis* – caught up in a world that doesn’t work.
 
We need to connect with God first – that’s really what the first four commandments are about – and then we need to connect with other people, which is what the last six commandments cover. As a friend, I can’t demand that you connect with your spouse on a regular basis, but give me the authority and I might require that you go on a date with him or her once a week in the hopes that you might connect there.
 
So I come downstairs in the morning, get my coffee, let the dog out, and sit down on the couch with my Bible and journal for an hour or more. I don’t do so because I need to check it off my list. I do so because I really believe Jesus’ words, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4)
 
I know that he’s not talking about reading the Bible per se, though God may use that to send me his word. He’s talking about the rhema word (in the Greek) – the living word that connects my spirit to God’s. I need it. My life needs to be built in such a way that there is space where he and I can connect. It’s the stream from which I drink living water.
 
In the past I used to think more legalistically. I read my Bible and prayed and went to church on Sunday because that’s what good people do. In my immaturity, I figured it was part of the equation that made me good enough for God.
 
Now I see it’s because my Creator made me for connection. He intended for our spirits to connect regularly. I need time with him. It would be nice if I didn’t need to make it a ritual, if it was more organic, but by starting me out with the training wheels of a mandated day, I think God knows that I will begin to find the connection that gives me life – it’s bread for my soul.
 
How are you doing with your connections? Are you connecting to God and to your friends? Do you feel that someone is regularly understanding you and your struggles and needs? You weren’t made to live in isolation. You need connection to live.
 
*The Unibomber who lived alone in a shack and sent out mailbombs that killed three and wounded 22.

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