Plugging In

Lord, you have searched me out and known me; you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar (Psalm 139).

Where does electricity go when you’re not using it?

Some things just plain baffle me. I know electricity comes from generators that receive their power from rolling rivers, smashing atoms, burning coal, buffeting winds, and so on; and I know that when I flip a switch a connection is made that closes a circuit, allowing electricity to do its thing.

But what happens to electricity that isn’t needed? Where does it go? Does it sit in a transformer, playing poker and chatting up an (electrical) storm with fellow electrons, waiting for someone to flip a switch or plug in an appliance?

I have a light in the living room that, when I turn the switch, takes a few seconds before coming to life. I sometimes imagine the delay is caused by the time it takes a lazy team of electrons to get the call somewhere on the East coast, put down their cards, and make the trip out West to do my bidding.

Of course I know that’s not really how it works, but that’s how I imagine it ought to work. It is there, ready, willing, and able to do our bidding as soon as we plug in and turn on.

I wonder if that isn’t something like how we relate to God. I wonder if God is a power moving though the universe waiting for folks to plug in and flicker to life.

I wonder if there is something we need to “do” in order to experience the reality of God’s presence.

The psalmist says there’s nothing we have to do. God was there while we were in our mother’s womb. God is there when we rise in the morning; God is there when we lie down at night. God is there when we’re working, and God is there when we’re day-dreaming. There is nowhere that God isn’t present.

We can cross the great wide sea, and God will be there when we arrive. We can climb the highest mountain, and God will be there waiting for us, or we can make our bed in the grave, and God is there to tuck us in.

Sometimes we spend a lot of time and energy trying to find God, or trying to run away, and the psalmist tells us there simply is no getting away from God.

Why should God care?

God cares because that is the nature of God. We call that kind of caring “love.” It isn’t an emotional attachment, but a genuine connection – the completion of a circuit, if you will.

There was a time I thought of God as an external reality, as a creature one had to invite “in” if one wanted to have a meaningful, spiritual relationship, but metaphors break down.

There is no in or out with God. God is God. God is. God.

Our challenge is to get past our ego-centric arrogance and/or our ego-centric shame and recognize that we are God’s workmanship. We are wonderfully and marvelously made, and, reflecting the image of God in our lives, we are called to join hands with one another and brighten up this world in which we live.

See, it isn’t God as “electron” waiting in the wires and amongst the transformers to be called; that would be us. We are the electrons God sends forth to love and serve in building up God’s kingdom. We are called to bring forth light in the darkness, warmth in the chill of winter (or cool in the heat of summer), music in the silence, and stillness in the midst of turbulence.

We don’t turn on God or turn God on; God is there, generating everything our generation needs to share the Good News of God’s presence to a world filled with fear, anxiety, depression, and pain.

We are God’s good news to a hurting world. We’re plugged in, so we can spring to life as God flips the switch in this, our world. What a bright idea!