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Just about everyone has experienced a power outage at some time in their life. With our modern dependence on electricity, when it fails we can find ourselves at a loss, uncertain how to accomplish even the most ordinary tasks. We resort to substitutes, such as batteries, generators, candles. Depending on how long the outage lasts, we begin to alter our patterns. Life just isn’t the same when we lose our connection to the power supply.
And so it is with the spiritual life. If we lose our connection to Christ, the source of all spiritual life, we become spiritually disoriented. In those moments we can find ourselves searching for substitutes that will give us at least a temporary security but that ultimately will fail us and increase our loneliness. The difference is that the power of Christ’s love is never turned off. Rather, we sometimes unplug ourselves.
If we are not tapped into the source of spiritual life – into Christ, the true vine – if we are not fed by the sap of Christ’s love, our spirit withers and dies, just as our bodies wither and die if we do not receive sufficient nourishment to sustain them.
As we pray this week, let us ask for the grace to remain connected to our God, because apart from him we can do nothing.