Skip to main content

Don't Be Untethered!

When I was elementary school, we often played tether ball at recess.  The game is played with a ball that is attached to a rope which, in turn, is attached to the top of a pole.  The object of the game is for two players to hit the ball in opposite direction to the other and the winner is the one to cause it (the rope and ball) to wrap itself around the pole to the point in which the ball touches the pole. 

One time, while I was playing, the rope broke and the ball went flying.  As we stood watching it, wondering what in the world we were going to do, we realized it was “game over!”

The memory of playing tether ball was recently stirred when I heard the phrase “untethered from the Gospel”.  It also prompted me to look up the word tether and I found that it means to be connected to, joined to, or tied to.

As I scrolled through more definitions, I found that a tether is also an attachment that characteristically anchors something movable to something fixed.

Perhaps more relevant to younger people today is the definition pertaining to the world of technology:  tethering is the practice of using a mobile device (such as a smart phone) as a modem to connect another device, such as a laptop or another mobile phone to the internet

While tether is probably not a word commonly found in the Bible, it can point us to an important spiritual concept:  “But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one with him in spirit.”  (1 Cor 6:17)

We should be tethered to the Lord, as in joined to Him, in order that we can become one with Him in spirit.  In addition, we should be constantly connected to Him.  Our very lives, in fact, should be tied up in Him.

Furthermore, since we are, by nature, movable, we should be tethered to something that is steadfast (fixed and immovable):  “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”  (2 Thess 3:5)

Another way of looking at this is to think of it all in the opposite as in untethered as in being disconnected or disjoined or untied and those are places you never want to be!

So, tether yourself to the Lord and be one with Him in spirit.

And don’t be untethered from the Gospel!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Excel Still More!

To excel, according to some of the meanings from a few dictionaries, is to surpass others, do extremely well, outdo, do something better than anyone else. In 1 Thessalonians 4:1, we find the phrase “excel still more”.   It prompts the question:  if we are already doing something better than anyone else, why would we be encouraged to do even more? Perhaps it would be helpful to see the wording that other translations use for “excel still more” to see why we would be encouraged to do so.  Here is a sampling: • abound more and more • to keep doing so more and more • but try even harder • live that way more and more. • that you progress even more. • that you increase more and more in how you ought to walk Maybe it would also be helpful to see some other verses where the word “excel” is used: “Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which when translated means Dorcas); this woman was excelling in acts of kindness and charity which she did habitually.”...

New Year Trash or Treasure?

You probably know the old saying:  “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.  I am not going to try to prove or disprove it, just look at it from a different angle. Cheryl and I were recently walking on a beach in Florida .  A man was walking along with a bag and was picking up trash and putting it in the bag.  Was he picking up things of value? We also saw a different man walking along the same beach with a metal detector.  He would swing it back and forth and would occasionally stop and dig in the sand.  Was he looking for things of value? Both were intent.  Both were focused.  Both were diligent. I’m guessing that the one picking up trash was not looking for things of value.  I’m also guessing that, by picking up trash, he was valuing the beauty of the beach and didn’t want the trash to mar it.  The one with the metal detector, I’m guessing that he was not looking for metallic items of trash but was looking for...

Value Proposition

Value proposition:  it’s a marketing statement that summarizes why a consumer should buy a product or use a service.  It should clearly and concisely communicate what customers can gain from selecting a particular brand over that of its competitors. In a value proposition, you don’t want your product to be viewed as being worth less than what your competitors offer.   But even worse, in a bit of a quirk of how letters and spaces can fall, if you take out the space between “worth” and “less”, you get “worthless”, which means something of no value.   If that word is used in conjunction with how your product is viewed by customers, it’s a word that will likely kill your brand. In the book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul, in a sense, communicated some value propositions. In chapter three, he starts off with describing the value of some things that many considered as extremely valuable in that day and age.   They had to do with status and achievement in the reli...