Arriving late, we were escorted to the church basement full of pastors and leaders, where we were to be the main- attraction. I began to set up my computer to their power point machine immediately. The pastor, who invited us, wanted to chat and so I tried to indicate that we were already running late, in a culture that is soaked in tardiness, and that I needed to connect the machines to make sure everything would work with the power point.
He politely smiled, oblivious to my sense of urgency and kept talking. I politely smiled and tried to listen to him as I connected the cables. The machines output on the tan wall was horrible. Using my best logic I figured that showing these slides, which were mostly tan in color were not going to show up on a wall painted… mostly tan. I started thinking of what to do and asked if we could change the direction of the machine to point onto the wall where the big white blank screen was. I figured, with my best figuring, that showing mostly tan slides on a mostly big white blank screen should show up pretty good, since that is what those big white blank screens are for.
So in the middle of the introductions, some eager helpers and myself started rearranging the chairs and tables and projector table and all so that we could show our power point on the big white blank screen. Everything was moved and plugged back into the proper sockets and cables connected and then…the exact same thing. That’s correct. Even after moving the projector to show onto that big white blank screen, the slides were almost impossible to see. I thought, “Well isn’t this just great. We came all this way to wow a bunch of Peruvian pastors with our World Impact Seminar power point and we can’t even see the slides.” That’s when someone thought of doing what I had never thought of doing before…”Let’s change the cable.” He said, and ran off to get one.
Minutes later, the cable was changed. For us, a miracle, equal to parting the Red Sea, took place, well pretty close. The picture showing up on the big white blank screen was beautiful and applause arose in the room full of these, normally, very quiet pastors. The talk was successful and the illustrations easily understood because of the changing of one little cable. Changing that one cable made all the difference in the world.
The same is true in our lives. When we have the proper connection to the Holy Spirit because our “cable” is not worn out and corroded, great things can happen. Our connection, with the Holy Spirit, needs to be strong, in order that we might communicate what He has placed on our insides. With the proper connections, what’s on the inside shows up very clear on the outside, where people are watching to see who we really are.
You know what happened the next day when we hooked our computer up to another church’s power point machine? That’s correct, the output on the screen was horrible. Immediately I said, “It’s got to be the cable!” It was! People in the room thought I was a genius…and I did not say anything to make them think different. How is your connection?
No comments:
Post a Comment