Router Failure

Router Failure

A wireless router connects my desktop, laptop, and printer, allowing me to share and print files and access the Internet from any place within its reach. Until it failed, I didn’t pay much attention to how it worked. But in the handful of days it has been on the blink, it has been more instructive to me than it ever was fully operational. The router always conducted its business in the background. It had no independent agenda or purpose—it just maintained connections to what was already operating. It was a conduit. A link. A liaison of sorts. But when the router stopped working, I was forced to think about how much I’ve come to depend upon its “covert” operation.

I wondered, too, if in some cases I’m not the ad hoc router between what God is saying and what someone else is straining to hear. Between what a struggling soul wants to pray but can’t find words for and the father who listens attentively. Between real, tangible resources and a real, tangible need. Between another’s request and God’s ample provision. If I am meant to be that kind of router (and I suspect I might be), what allows that to happen—and what keeps it from happening?

Simply put (forgive me, any technically astute person who might be reading), I’m pretty certain three things must occur. The power must be on. I must be connected to the power source. And I must be connected to the intended recipient of that power. Because my router failed, I’ve begun to troubleshoot each of these things more conscientiously. And I’ve noticed a funny thing. When, in my mind’s eye, I grasp the hand of God and grasp another’s hand in order to love or help or intercede, I’m stretched out, cruciform style. Of course. Because that’s just the way Jesus has done it for me.

Since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. . . . Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering . . . and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

Hebrews 10:21-24, NASB