Monday, July 7, 2008

Are You Connected?

Ah Technology. Last week my family headed to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to enjoy some R&R. Before we left, I wrote my 3 blogs for the week and set them to auto-publish at the correct time. I was feeling techno-fabulous. I was still getting responses ("comments"). I could stay connected to my bloggie friends and they'd never even have to know I was gone.

Oh Technology! The internet at the beach house was S-L-O-W. I'd send out my log in and password, but it didn't seem to get there. While I could visit my bloggie friends' blogs, I couldn't comment! I was NOT connected. And interestingly, without leaving comments on others' sites, my own site's visits dropped by 1/3! I felt seriously out-of-touch. And after a while, I just gave up trying.

Sometimes my prayer life can mirror my techno-life. I'm shooting up prayers, getting responses and feel oh-so connected with God. I am feeling faith-fabulous. I am on the high speed prayer connection with my knee mail.

Other times, however, it seems I'm on dial up faith connection. I am sending out prayers, but they just don't seem to get there. My responses drop. I feel seriously out-of-touch. I'm like the verizon phone guy, calling out to God "Can you hear me now?" And sometimes, I hate to admit, I just give up trying.

I need to follow the Jesus' example of prayer: "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." (Mark 1:35). Having small kids, its hard to find a solitary place. Even the bathroom isn't! But, if I would get up very early in the morning, perhaps I could find that solitary place.

My prayer life is a lot like my technology life. To keep connected to God, I need to make sure I keep reading his comments (the Bible), and I need to keep sending Knee Mail.

How about you? Are you connected?

Psalm 66:20 - - Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!

Luke 5:16 - - But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Romans 12:12 - - Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

12 comments:

Truth4thejourney said...

I love this post! It is so true. Mornings are the best time to be alone with God. I'll keep sending up my Knee Mail and reading God's comments (His Word) daily. :)

HisPrincess said...

Knee Mail! Love it!

I'm a lot like you Kelly. I need to keep connected so I don't forget how.

Bonita said...

Great post, Kelly! Perhaps, God wanted you to spend your time at the beach relaxing and disconnecting from us so you could get some knee mail going with Him. I rarely take my puter with me on vacation because I like having a period of disconnect. Unfortunately, I also disconnect from knee mail now and then too! Thanks for the reminder.

The Patterson 5 said...

Staying connected is vital! It helps me to stay in His Word everyday! Praise songs help too especially during the witching hour (the hour I am trying to prepare dinner and my napless three year old is cranky!) Thanks for the reminder to stay in focus! Glad you had some disconnect time from your computer, even though you were missed!

My ADHD Me said...

I LOVE this post. One of my favorites.
I also love the way you are able to take every day occurances and show us that every thing is connected to God.

Alyce said...

hi there
did you have a nice vacation at the beach? We used to go there. I did have family in from MI and they went down for a few days. Hope it was nice!

Pinkshoelady said...

Hi Kelly,
Thank you for visiting my blog today. I feel like I'm tredding water here. So encouragement makes a nice raft to hold onto for today!
I loved your post!
I am just entering this techno connected world and am more use to the old stand-bys. But God is leading (shoving it feels more like) me into this connected world and I love it! Meeting people like you with similar stories and love for Jesus is amazing.
Thanks for being a new friend and I hope we can connect in person sometime--Maybe at next years She Speaks!

Julie Gillies said...

You know, Kelly, I have to confess that when I don't sense the Lord's "comments" to my prayers, I wonder what's going on!

I LIVE for His comments!

Thanks for this great post!

Marina said...

Hi, i just read your post on Lysa blog and I wanted to ask you what women on faith was depress ? I have seen the women of faith at least 3 times when they come to town but don't remember one of them talking about being depress I amight of miss it thankds,marina

Tammy R said...

Connected? If I don't rise early in the morning@5:00am...
dusting,dishes and busyness starts to get in the way.

You're right, we need to place God first.I have found that when I seek Him in the morning,everything else falls into place.

Great post and a great reminder!

Marina said...

thanks for the info, ever since I had surgery lasat year I went into a depression that is the reason I started my blog ,but I don't like to write about It I don't want to bring people down but I just read you post and what you said is ture I need that connection with God and my bloggers.:)well chatty kelly I am much like you I love to chatt I hope to see you around again.,marina

Lysa TerKeurst said...

Hi Friend...

Great analogy today.

Glad you had some time at the Beach.

Blessings!