Connections: What Are You Connected To?

Wayne Adamiec

03/25/07

Those of you who know me know that I am no stranger to this stage.

I usually stand back there someplace and entice you to stand up, or sing, or silence your cell phones, or something like that.

Today, I’m taking a few steps forward to share some ideas with you.

I need to tell you…  Somehow, now that I’m 8 or 10 feet closer, it’s seems like all of your eyeballs suddenly got this big!  It’s really kinda scary.

As I contemplated being today’s Lay Preacher, I thought to myself, “This will be a great opportunity to have fun with our Pathways congregation!”

Then I thought that I should probably say something meaningful or profound, instead of my usual light-hearted banter.

So I decided to explain all the great mysteries of the universe.  But, if I did that, then you all wouldn’t need to come back to church anymore.  That wouldn’t be so good.

So, I thought and prayed and meditated and ruminated about what I would do or what I would say.  The answer that I kept getting was,  “Do what you always try to do.  Make a connection.”

So today, I want to share with you what I believe and understand about a few different kinds of connections, and how they relate to my spiritual path and my experiences here at Pathways.  I also plan to have some fun.  I hope that’s OK.

Connections. When I think of connections, the first one that comes to my mind is a musical connection.

Here’s what I mean.

“Wally, would you turn up the sound on my vocal mike back here?”

(I head toward my keyboard, and begin to play a bluesy rhythm track and bass line)

You know, there are a lot of connections going on right here.  Let’s see what happens if I disrupt one of them.  (unplug the keyboard, keep playing with no sound).

Wow! What just happened?  A moment ago I was creating a mood.  I was making music.

Now I’m pressing plastic keys on an inanimate object.   It’s the weirdest thing, but this doesn’t even feel like a musical instrument anymore.  It might as well be a coffee table.

The fact is, all the electricity that I need is right here. All the talent is right here at my fingertips.

But when this connection isn’t made (holding the plug in my hand) nothing happens.

I don’t understand how electricity works, but without it, I’m disempowered. Literally.

Did you know that if we didn’t have electricity, you’d all be sitting here watching me try to play this keyboard by candlelight?

Same thing goes with the microphone connection.

(stepping away from the keyboard and away from a microphone, speaking normally)

Can you all hear me in the back?  No?  I guess I’ll have to speak up. 

Do you think that after a while I’ll get tired of shouting, and you’ll get tired listening to my strained voice and tune me out?  Probably so.  (stepping back up to the microphone)

Wow.  Two simple connections that we all take for granted.  The electricity, the talent, all the words are right here—yet without the right connections, nothing much happens. We all get frustrated.

Connections matter.

And there are so many kinds of connections to talk about. For example, as Music Team leader here at Pathways, it is my responsibility to create or re-create connections with each of you every Sunday morning.

Some of you might be preoccupied about things when you first arrive.

You may be thinking about what happened earlier this morning, or the upcoming football game, a family situation…  Who knows?  Our thoughts are as different as snowflakes.

Did you know that it is impossible to connect with someone who is preoccupied with something else?

My role is to connect with the rest of the Music Team to create a musical effect that will either jar you, or lull you, or charm you away from your own thoughts, leaving your hearts open to actually connect to what Pathways has to offer during this service.

Some of you connect to the sound of the music.  Some of you connect to the words.  Some of you connect to the idea that in about 10 more minutes, all this singing and music stuff will be over, and we’ll get to the meat and potatoes of the sermon.

Connecting with a group of people is very complex.  When we all connect, it is very powerful.  When we don’t, it can be flat as a pancake in here.  I’ve seen it happen.

So, every week, I bring a bottle of pancake syrup with me…  Just in case. (hold up syrup bottle)

I hope I won’t need this after my sermon today.

Let’s explore some other kinds of connections.

What about family connections?

I have a connection with my dad.  He passed away about 25 years ago.  My dad had little formal education, yet he could figure out and repair just about anything.  To this day, whenever I’m trying to repair something and I get stuck, I ask myself, “What would dad do in this situation?”  Inevitably, I get a good idea about how to proceed.

So how does that work?   I really don’t know.  I just know that it does, and you’d be hard pressed to convince me otherwise.

Besides musical connections and family connections, there are physical connections.

Did you know that, if people never had any physical connections our population would be less than half of what it is today?

Some of you will get that one later.

Hugs are connections.

How many of you have ever needed a hug?

How many have felt better after receiving a hug?

How many have felt better after giving a hug?

How does that work?  What changes during the hug?  I don’t think anybody really knows.

I suppose some scientist could hook us up to some device and tell us that we feel better because of some elevated brain pattern somewhere that is known to be associated with pleasure,

but the fact is, we feel better because we have made a much needed connection.

Hugs are good things.  Both the giver and receiver get instant benefits.

Musical connections, family connections, physical connections… how about connections with a spouse or partner.

My wife Therese and I have a connection.  It is both strange and wonderful.

I’m strange, and she’s wonderful.

This may come as a surprise to many of you, but there are times when I do things that Therese does not expect nor even want me to do.

Sometimes Therese does things that I don’t approve of.

OK, sweetheart.  It was really only that one time.

Sometimes we laugh it off.  Sometimes we have words about it.  Therese calls those discussions.  Sometimes one of us was hurt by the words or actions of the other.

Those times of hurt are infrequent and always short-lived.  They are short-lived because we both have much more to be thankful for, than to be angry for, with each other.

We both choose to stay connected to the good things in our relationship, rather than what is troublesome.  We love each other, and we’re committed to nurturing our connection.  It is much more satisfying as a result.

I don’t know why it works like that, but I know that it’s true for us.

The more that I reflect on this connection business, I think that most of our human experience is the result or an effect of our connections.

Our connections empower us to be or do more than we can on our own power.

The key is in what we stay connected to, and how we acquire, use and maintain our connections.

Now let’s pause for a moment, and take a look at what we’ve covered so far.  I’ve just talked about a few kinds of connections, and there are lots more…probably enough for a whole sermon series.  But, they told us in our Lay Preaching class that if our sermon went longer than 60 minutes, you all would start to get a little fidgety, so I’m going to move right along.

I’ll talk about only two more kinds of connections, starting with the spiritual kind.

And while I know that there are many spiritual perspectives and approaches represented here today, I am going to speak out of my own experience, and use the language that I am most comfortable with. I’ll just let you translate things for yourself as I go along.  Is that OK?

I have a spiritual connection… through my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  It is the source of my strength, and love for my fellow man.

I don’t have time here to go into my whole spiritual journey, but here’s the Reader’s Digest version:

I think I came to believe in God when I realized that everything in this world is made up of the same types of atoms and molecules.

Somehow, in the grand scheme of things, I ended up being a human, and not a salamander.

Since I don’t remember filling out any paperwork, I figure that it was God’s will that I’m a human.

Somewhere along the line, I was taught, or got the notion, that one of the things that God did was answer prayer.  That meant that somehow God and I already were, or could be, connected.

Over the years, I encountered a number of people who wanted me to be “saved”.  I never really understood what they meant, and frankly, I didn’t really feel that I needed to be “saved” from anything, so I always put them off.

I never really connected with them, their message or their methods.

Eventually, I met some people who told me that they routinely conversed with God.  I said, “You mean you just talk with God, and He answers you?”

They said, “Yes, much like you and I are talking right now, but not out loud.”

They attributed this ability to their having made a decision to accept Jesus Christ as their savior.

Frankly, I found this difficult to believe, but I trusted the integrity of those people.  They didn’t do the ‘hard sell’ like others had done, but invited me to consider the possibilities of a personal relationship with Jesus.

So I bought a Bible.  Not the kind with all the annotations.  I bought a plain Bible, so that I could make my own interpretations of what I read. 

As I read about the life, teachings and wisdom of Jesus, I thought to myself, “If there really is a way to connect with God, then Jesus was someone that knew how to do it.”

And if Jesus said that we could do it too, I wanted to learn how.  I decided to take a chance.

Did I say, “Take a chance?”

I figured that if they were wrong about this Jesus thing, I could try it, and be none the worse for wear.  But if they were right…

I knew I needed help.  I needed to get help from something greater than myself, and greater than this world around me, if that was possible. 

This is well worth a chance, I thought.

At the time, I never imagined that taking that chance would turn out to be the best decision I have ever made in my whole life.

Soon after that, I met with 2 of my friends (one of them is here today) and together we prayed a short prayer of commitment and salvation.  And “Voila!”

I was a born-again, saved Christian.  Whatever that meant.  I was a Believer!  I still am.

I think it’s probably true that many people don’t understand what being “saved” really means.

First, let me tell you what it doesn’t mean:

Yahoo!  I’m not going to Hell any more, like all you non-believers are!

I need to get everyone else Saved, for their own good, whether they want to, or not!

You know, some Christians really believe all that.  Many are taught to believe it.

I skipped those teachings. For me, it’s more like having spiritual headlights installed on my car, unlimited free towing and repair, and a global positioning system.

It’s a great deal, available at a very low price.

I can now drive without fear on any of the roads of life, even when it’s dark all around me… because I see the light and feel the protection of God.  This is my source of confidence.

It also means that when I encounter difficult situations, I can offer my problems up to God for His help, and not ever have to be at the mercy of my circumstances.  This is the source of my strength.  It’s a really big one!

It means that when I feel lost, I can ask my God for directions, and receive an answer.

Sometimes it’s not the answer I was hoping for, but I always feel that I have been heard.

I just gotta love a God like that!

It doesn’t mean that I no longer bump into things.  It just means that I can see more of them coming…if I remember to turn my headlights on, that is.

I do that through prayer and meditation.

Prayer and meditation.  That’s what keeps the connection strong.

So, how does all that work?  It works great.

I don’t know why it works, but it works for me.

Does it always work?  Sometimes I wonder…  but only for a moment.

But you know what?  Sometimes I forget to plug in my keyboard and I wonder why there is no music… but only for a moment.

Being a new Christian, I had to find a church, to strengthen this new connection.

I was not prepared for what was to follow.

I was certainly not prepared to hear the teachings of the Baptist church that I started attending.

Now that I was a Believer, they all assumed that I embraced all the doctrines of their religion.

I tried to embrace their ideas, but many of them just didn’t seem right to me.

That’s why I started coming to Pathways Church.

It’s a sad thing, but I think many Christians are taught to be connected to the wrong ideas about God and Christianity.

It seems that the most important thing somehow gets lost in the shuffle.

A loving connection with God.

That makes it difficult for the rest of us who enjoy a healthy God connection to share The Good News.

It’s a shame when the value of a religious belief suffers because of the actions of some of its followers.

It’s a shame when saying that you’re a Christian is similar to saying that you’re a Republican or a Democrat.

Politically, I think I would identify myself as a Conservative Republican.

Does this mean that I support every aspect of the Republican and Conservative agendas?

Hell, No!  Oops!  Is it OK for Republicans to say Hell?

I just have a conservative philosophy, and I connect with Republican ideals slightly more than Democratic ideals.

I think many political platforms are connected to the wrong things, too.

Enough about all that, except to say that some connections seek more from us than we are prepared to give.

Now I want to talk about one last kind of connection: our Pathways connection.

Here we are at a Pathways Worship service.

Some of us really struggle with the idea of worship.

Worship is one of those words that doesn’t have many good, all-inclusive synonyms.

After all, if there really is a God, all-powerful and all that, why does He need us…to worship Him?

I don’t think God needs for us to worship Him.  I think it’s a trick.

Sometimes I trick my wife Therese into giving me a hug … because I know she needs one.

I think worship works the same way as hugs do.  God says,  “Hug Me”.  You hug God.  He hugs you back.  You feel better.  God was OK the whole time.  What a great trick!

I think God knows that we need more hugs than we are getting from each other.

I think He also likes us to visit the places He hangs out.  Like churches.  It’s an easier place to make a connection.

I know that this has been a lot of God and Jesus talk.  Probably more than you’re used to.

I recognize the right and validity of every person’s belief, and my intent here today is not to convert you all to Christianity or to a belief in God.

When I moved to Texas, I once heard the saying, “Dance with the one who brung ya.”

We’ve all had different spiritual dance partners who have ‘brung us’ to where we are today.

Jesus and God have brought me to where I am today.

Perhaps a different dance partner brings you here.

The great thing about Pathways is that we can dance our unique dances all in the same place

We can even change dancing partners.

If you ever have a need to change dancing partners, you’ll know it.

And you’ll find someone who can help you do that.

If you don’t need to change partners, then just keep dancing.

You know, dancing is a type of connection, too.

One last important thing about connections:

In an electrical connection, the electricity that flows through the wires is called the current, or ‘the Juice’.

The more Juice you have in the line, the more power you have.

In personal, or spiritual connections, the Juice that flows through the connection is Love.

There is a lot of Juice flowing here at Pathways Church.  That’s one of the reasons I come.

But, if you were to ask me why I come to Pathways Church, I’d have to say,

“I come for the connections.  What are you connected to?”

I’d love to hear your answer.

Thank you.