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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!

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