The Difference between a "Jump" and an Actual Charge

Well, my car died again. Not too serious, just an empty battery. But that's twice in a week so I've just about decided on a new one (battery) to avoid a major inconvenience.

Anyway, jump-starting myself from Rebekah's Santa Fe made me remember a funny story from my days as a security guard in college. Yes, you heard that right; I worked night shifts on campus security to pay my way through school.

One early shift, around 9:00 PM on a stormy night, I got a call to help a co-ed with a dead car. I took along the jumper cables and braved the driving rain to hook things up under the hood. Her battery was completely drained, and it took several attempts and a few minutes of waiting before her car finally cranked.

Soaked to the skin, I carefully unhooked the cables from her end and put them in the trunk of the security vehicle. I couldn't believe my eyes when she immediately turned off the ignition, jumped out of the car, and ran back to her dorm.

"Wait!" I called out, hurrying after her. She stopped in the shelter of the front porch. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Why did you turn off the car."

"Silly," she smiled at me as if I was a small child who needed things spelled out. "It's only 9:30 and I don't have to be at the party until 10:00!" And with that she waltzed into the lobby... and I determined I'd be sure to be checking a building way the other side of campus when she called back for another jump....

And I found myself (today, back with my uncooperative Saturn Aura) thinking about church tomorrow morning. So many of us try to flag God down for "a little help over here", hook up for a quick jolt, then waltz back off into the pressing business of our lives without even the minimum residual charge remaining, resident in our spirits - and we're shocked when we can't even begin to get our spiritual life cranked.

"Why does that always happen?" we ask. "It's dead again, and I haven't even been anywhere."

Which is the point, of course. We've got to go somewhere to set the charge. And we've got to remain in the life-charged presence of the Master.

God told his friends in Israel exactly how they needed to be deliberate about maintaining the connection.

• Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Believe me, it's a good word.

- DEREK