Stay Connected!

As a coach, how important is it for you to stay connected to your players, your coaching staff and your playbook? As an athlete, how important is it for you to stay connected to your coach, your teammates and your training plan? To be successful and fulfill our mission as a coach or athlete it’s very important to stay connected. We all use our cell phones to stay connected to the world. They have become a vital tool that we depend on. Without them we are not as productive as we would like to be. How useful is your cell phone when it runs out of power and dies? It’s useless! We stop everything and recharge it to bring life and power back into it. We must plug the power cord into it and plug the cord into a source of power. Then after sufficient charging we can go on our way and re-engage in life.

Let’s draw a comparison to our spiritual life. We are the cell phone, Jesus is the power cord and God, the Father, is the power source. Jesus connects us to God and His power. In John 14:6 Jesus tells us, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Just like a cell phone without the charging cable, without a connection to Jesus we have no power. Jesus is the key! However, when our phone runs out of power and dies, we can plug it in to the power source until it is fully recharged. Similarly, when we plug into Christ and connect with Him, we can enter into God’s presence and receive His power, peace, protection, provision and purpose. In John 15, Jesus shares another comparison with God as the Master Gardener, Jesus as the vine and people as the branch. In this teaching, Jesus uses the word “Remain” or “Abide” 11 times to encourage us to “Stay Connected”! Apart from Jesus we can do nothing but when we are connected to Him we will be fruitful and productive in serving Him.

We stay connected by intentionally creating space and time for God through prayer, reading and meditating on God’s Word, worship and fellowship. It is there that God prunes our branches so that we bear lasting fruit. As a Christ follower, we must stay connected to Jesus every day and throughout the day!