Wired For Connection

Over the past few weeks MPCYouth has been talking about how every person is wired for connection. We are wired to be connected to three things: 1) God 2) Ourselves 3) Others. This idea is based off of Matthew 22:37-39 which states, “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” We can obviously see that Christ called us to be connected with God first and foremost. In youth group we talked about how it can often be hard to connect with God because He can seem distant. However, if we look around ourselves, whether it be in nature or our fellow human, we can see God. We can see God everywhere we look. When we see a beautiful sunrise, a placid lake, flowers blooming in the garden, or look out over creation from a mountaintop we can see God in the beautiful things He created. We can also look at our family, friends, and, sometimes, strangers to find God. When we see someone showing love, it comes from the Father because we are told that we love only because, “He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). If we take time to get “unwired” from our electronics or whatever distracts us, we can begin to plug in to God by observing His character in all creation. Then we talked about how we need to learn that God always loves us just as we already are. So often we find ourselves comparing our own life and accomplishments with others. That always leads to feeling insufficient and unworthy. However, if we can come to a fuller understanding of the truth that we were created like God (Genesis 1:26), we will come to understand our Father created us specially and loves us despite our failures or perceived shortcomings. When we learn that we are worthy of being loved simply because God loves us, we can begin to love others in the same unconditional manner. In our last week of this series we talked about how "If you want to connect with God, be in community with people." God created us as social creatures, He said, “It is not good for man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). That is hard sometimes because people are hard to get along with and we may have a flight, fight, or freeze response in difficult situations. However, when we can accept the fact that our connections with people are not going to be perfect and look to Christ as an example in relationships ,we can learn to reap the great benefits of being in community. Community is going to be messy, it is going to be draining, but in the end relationships are what make us grow and can draw us towards a deeper relationship with God. My prayer for you this week is that you are shown where you are wired into something unhealthy. More than that ,I pray that the Holy Spirit shows you where you can get wired into something beautiful, healthy, lifegiving, community oriented, and Christ-centered. Jacob Bancroft EndFragment