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Are You Connected?
Joe Killian • May 19, 2017
This is a photo of the Holter heart monitor that I was sent home from the hospital with yesterday. I have been experiencing some tightness in my chest and at 55 doctors don't take chances, especially with my family history. The good news is that after a battery of tests my heart has been deemed healthy. As a precaution they asked me to wear the monitor for an additional 24 hours. I'll be happy to get rid of the wires and the irritating electrodes that are stuck to my chest. The heart is one of those things that we really don't pay much attention to until something isn't right. I am blessed with a good heart that I will be paying even more attention to now. See if you can identify the connections to this week's Gospel:
Jesus said to his disciples: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him." John 14:15-21
Imagine how the disciples must have felt as Jesus spoke these words on Holy Thursday. These sentences are incredibly complex and even convoluted if you remember that Jesus had yet to be crucified and raised from the dead. However in the middle of this passage is the key. "In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you." Everything is connected. Father to Son. Father and Son to the Spirit. And most significantly Father, Son and Spirit to you and me.
Connected to the machines in the lab, I began to run faster on the treadmill. Surrounded by two technicians, the cardiologist and lots of technology I couldn't understand what it all meant. Out of the corner of my eye I watched my heart rate on the screen. As it went over 150 beats per minute I thought, I can't do this much longer. Just then the technician injected the "radioactive isotope" into my catheter and the cardiologist said, "One more minute." WHEW! I finished the stress test and was congratulated for being in good shape. I am still not completely clear how the injection at that moment worked but the smile of the cardiologist after he looked at the report made all the difference. My heart is healthy!
The Holy Spirit, our Advocate, is our connection to the Father and Son. Even in the midst of uncertainty, we are still connected. The more we pay attention to that the better. It's like the heart monitor. It reminds me of my heart just as the Holy Spirit reminds us of the Father and the Son. Stay connected and experience the love of a healthy heart with God.
The story continues...I'm still working on the pondless waterfall in our front yard. I shared this project with you two weeks ago in Playin' In the Dirt. Since then I've had to rework sections of the stream three different times because we were losing too much water. I am now an expert on evaporation rates and excessive splash, two causes of water loss. This morning I tore the whole thing apart and I'm starting over.
Have you ever watched DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda? I stumbled across it recently and thoroughly enjoyed Jack Black's performance as a bumbling, noodle selling, kung fu enthusiast, giant panda named P o. Set in ancient China, it is more than a humorous slapstick comedy. The core message of the story jumped out at me as I have been focusing recently on the concept of being. Po is shockingly identified as the Dragon Warrior and he reluctantly enters training. The goal of the training is to receive the Dragon Scroll, which is believed to hold the secret to limitless power. Now I don't want to spoil the big reveal but I will say that what Po realizes is the same as what I speak to in the concept of being and authentic identity. So, where do we find the secret to our "power?" I praise You, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works! My very self You know. Psalm 139:14 God knows it; and we must seek Him with all of our hearts in order to find it. As it was in the movie, the answer is stunningly simple. Our authentic identity is already within us. The challenge for Po in the movie was in seeing himself accurately and not the way others saw him. Even his teacher scoffed at the idea that Po was anything more than an underachieving dreamer who overate when he was anxious. Po's problems are rooted in the fact that he believes the lie of his false identity much more than he does his authentic one. Is it possible that you do the same? Who could have imagined that beneath all of Po's girth lived the Dragon Warrior? What's hidden from view in you? Seek God for understanding as to who He created you to be. Spoiler Alert: the secret of your limitless power is already in you. God placed it there and He wants you to be who He authentically created you to be.
Maria and I have been playing in the dirt a lot recently. First we replaced our French drain and then we embarked on a creative project intended to change the entire look of our front yard. My brother Jeffrey and I installed a new front step.
