Abide in His Love

How's your signal strength? How's your power level?

Back in the early days of my shipboard life the Navy was also in the early days of getting email capabilities at sea. Unlike today, there were specific windows during which email would be uploaded to be sent to families and downloaded for distribution to the crew. One of the early capabilities came via a system know as INMARSAT. If one’s ship was training off the coast of SOCAL (I was 100% a west coast Sailor), you would be doing enough donuts where there were frequent opportunities to get and send messages. For westward deployment transits, we had less frequent access due to the location of the antenna on the mast and the fact that the satellites’ geostationary orbits. On the latter point, the further to the edges of one footprint, the more one “suffered” from reduced signal strength, atmospheric interference, etc. Already getting too technical and I’m very hazy on the details. (Side Note: one of the best trainings I ever received was late in my career on Satellite Operations. All mostly leaked from my brain by now). The point is that we would go out of our way to occasionally during a westward transit turn to “INMARSAT CORPEN.” The bridge and CIC watch team’s had templates that depicted along what bearings from the ship the antenna was obstructed. When directed, we would turn the ship until we had the antenna fully pointed to the satellite. The point: we would go out of our way to make connection.

Similarly back in those days with limited cell phone tower infrastructure, it was not uncommon to see someone walking around doing his or her best Statue of Liberty / water diviner impression (upwards though) trying to get the flip phone at the edge of the signal lobe. Again, we would go out of our ways to get and stay connected.

Look at this map now.

Your plan’s coverage footprint may be purple or dark blue. Now it is near impossible not to be connected, but occasionally we suffer from the indication of no connection

Or even the dreaded “no service.” Our fail “safe” is a WiFi. There are still moments where we’ll go out of our way to be properly connected, to remain in a strong signal footprint of some sort, to stay connected. This is to say nothing about going out of our way for power. Battery life and charging technology has improved in parallel with coverage maps, but the concern for having enough charge is always stealing some of our mental bandwidth. “Did I bring my cord and charger?” The term is “Battery Anxiety.” A recent survey pinned the number as 38% charge when BA kicks in. As you might expect the percentage at which the different generations get anxious is higher for those of younger age. See here: 38%. How does this make you feel?

We are in constant search for sources of signal and sources of power.

Listening to a fellow pastor preach on the beginning of John 15 aka “I am the True Vine” got me thinking about this. He asked a group of young adults how many worked on farms or had experience gardening. As you can image there were only a few. (Wait until you get married young man!) “Abide in me,” Jesus tells his disciples on their walk to the Garden of Gethsemane. Abide means continue, remain, dwell*. I remember, as Officer of the Deck being ready to get back on the Plan of Intended Movement (PIM) after the agreed upon window, only to be told, “Bridge - TAO, remain on INMARSAT CORPEN.” “TAO, Bridge, aye.” Stay in the footprint. Let that RF signal wash over the ship so to speak.

Do I abide in Jesus the way I have sought electronic signal? Do I worry if my spiritual battery strength is too low like I do my phone or laptop’s battery?

There are roughly 350,000 churches in the United States compared to about 400,000 mobile towers. Interestingly about 15,000 of those churches host cell phone towers on their properties. Imagine, theological differences aside that those are signal beacons for the love of Jesus. “Abide in my love.” Now don’t worry, I’m not going all “Love is love” wonky over here. In fact,

John 14:15

¹⁵ “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Matthew 5:17

¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

If I look to Jesus, if I seek his signal - the Word ,and if I seek his power - remembering I have the power of the Holy Spirit within me, I will keep his commandments. I will love my neighbor as myself, I will see every interaction through the lens of what the Bible commands and I will bear fruit, more fruit, much fruit, and enduring fruit (back to the True Vine passage). I will act in love, joy, with peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control (or as I like to think Holy Spirit control of self).

Those moments when my heart is abiding somewhere else, it is like I have it in airplane mode, in a Faraday cage, or have plugged into the dirty power source that is the world.

There is an older movie called The Frighteners where soon-to-victims had their numbers visible on their heads. In that movie only one person could see it. What if I had spiritual connection and spiritual battery icons floating above my head as I wend my way through the world? How many bars would I have? How much charge would I being holding?

Colossians 3:16–17

¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

I have been thinking about that a lot more because of that sermon. I’m going to spend a lot less time seeking phone signal and phone power. I will seek it, but first and most I will, by his power, seek first his kingdom.

Matthew 6:33

³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

And by abiding in his signal love, I live in a way that reflects my love for him, living with joy and gratitude, encouraging others, and pointing them toward him.

I pray you will, too.