Tethered to God – what does it mean?

I had planned last week to change tack from my original thoughts on this from a month ago, and write instead about the strong sense of the tethering to God that I had when I flew home on less than 24 hours notice from Sydney to Canada on March 15th. I felt very keenly as we took off on our flight that I was sailing on the wings of song and prayer. And reflecting further on this after I got home, I realized that we were actually ascending to the skies at the same time all of you at BPUC were worshipping  – that is one strong tether!!. But before the whole world changed, my thinking about the link of hope and faith to God had been based in a couple of  simple metaphors. And today, after taking part in the March 29 service, I feel these first thoughts are worth expressing, since for me, everything about that service called me to ‘connect back’ to prayer and the Bible and faith overall.

So here goes… at our summer cottage, we used to play tether ball on the beach. Not sure if it is an Aussie past-time the way it is in Canada!  By way of explanation for the uninitiated, the game involves  a volleyball tied securely to a rope affixed to the top of a ~12 foot metal pole that is cemented ‘permanently’ into the ground as the anchor. The ball thus has a certain freedom of movement that allows players to hit it back and forth around the pole, together or singly. However, on its fixed length tether, it can never really go astray despite some variation in its path depending on how it is played.On further thought, I decided it doesn’t represent our tethering to God, because it fails to account for times when we feel closer, or more distant, or removed altogether.

But, what about the image of a cannister vacuum cleaner that is connected to its wall power source via a cord. Maybe?  Its cord has variable length of distance from the power source and we are free to choose (consciously or unconsciously) how far the vacuum moves across the room on that cord. And occasionally the cord, despite all best intentions, just comes out of the wall, and to keep going we must reconnect it. Similarly in life, it may take unusual events such as now, coupled with being part of  a community of love and faith like BPUC, to help us realize not only that we can re-connect or  more fully tie ourselves to God, but also to know how to go about making that happen. For my part, I say a deep thank you to our amazing BPUC community for helping me to re-tether both while I was in Adelaide partaking of the ‘regular’ services and choir and fellowship in February/early March, and even more strongly in the last 2 weeks all the way from across the equator line. This tethering theme could not have been more appropriately timed!

Love and peace,
Virginia