The Importance Of Connection
By David W Hall
Recently, whilst in Papua New Guinea, I was told the story of several men who moored their banana boat at the jetty and went ashore leaving one of their number behind because he was drunk. When they returned several hours later the boat was gone, having been carried off by the winds and currents. The drunken occupant of the boat eventually awoke to realise that he was lost on the high seas and was being carried further westward without oars, sail or outboard motor. Nor did he have any food. The hardships he faced were incredible but, amazingly, he survived and was rescued weeks later by a passing ship. What was his overriding problem? His boat had lost connection to the jetty.
This story makes a helpful metaphor for the whole of the human race. We wake up in a world that is full of suffering and hardship. Where have we come from, and where are we going? The evolutionist will tell us that we had our beginnings in primordial slime. Of course, such assertions are merely theory, and even if they were true they do not tell us the origin of all things nor do they tell us where we are going. We are lost on the sea of human existence and who can tell us what the purpose is for living? We need an answer from beyond ourselves. We need a connection with someone beyond the realm of time, space and human limitation. We need to be connected to the One Who created all things.
The good news is that there is a purpose for each of us beyond just survival. We are not just accidents of nature, nor are we the insignificant result of generations of procreation. God planned and made each of us to be unique, and for a specific purpose. We were designed to be sons and daughters of God living in perfect relationship and harmony with Him and each other. How far we have fallen!
Our connection with God was lost when Adam and Eve chose independence from God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Every man and woman since then has continued in the same pursuit of independence. Now, we are paranoid lest someone infringe upon our liberties. In our minds we have re-designed God to be simply a servant of our desires and ideals. A great deception lies here! Connection and independence are opposites. We cannot be independent from God and be connected to Him at the same time.
The simple principle now emerges. To be connected to something or someone we must surrender our independence from them.
Recently, while taking a walk along the beach, I took my wife’s hand. This meant that we both had to walk in the same direction, on the same path, at the same speed, and at the same time. It was our free choice to be thus connected, but nevertheless there was an element of surrender in the decision.
The story is told of a small child who put his hand into a jar to take hold of an attractive object. He could not then withdraw his hand while holding the object. He cried in frustration and discomfort. His parents then told him to let go of the object, but he would not. He was bound by his possessive independence. To come free of the jar he would have to surrender something.
We were made to be connected to God. He is the source of true life and being. Without Him we do not have genuine life – we only have existence. When we acknowledge the reality of Who God is, and who He made us to be then we can surrender to His invitation to be joined to Him. Here we find the power to cease living in selfish independence and to live in the satisfaction of self-giving relationship. Anxiety for survival, meaning and personal value can now melt away in the security of relationship with the God Who created all things. This is our testimony and the testimony of untold millions who have become joined to Christ.
