Disconnected Battery
One of the “spiritual practices” that we have chosen to lean into in our lives as a family is the practice of camping. I can already hear some of you thinking that camping is not a spiritual practice. Really though, anything that we choose to do to honour God, in order to seek His presence for the renewal of our souls whether in community or individually can be a spiritual practice. For us, it has become a part of the rhythm of our lives and has an impact on how we live spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically.
Each summer we pack up our family, the travel trailer, and truck, and head to Vancouver Island to camp with some of our favourite people in beautiful, off-grid places. It is so good for our families to do this, but it is also good for our souls to get away from all of the challenges, busyness, demands, emails, and devices. We have our spots that we go to that facilitate this disconnecting, places that are remote, somewhat untouched, where the salmon are running, and time never seems to run out.
We enjoy being in our travel trailer, and have found a rhythm to life in it when we are on the road. In 2020, we spend nearly 50 days in it as a family, this summer it was closer to 25 with one stretch of 21 days. We have two big bottles of propane on the front, and a solar powered battery system that is able to fully charge the batteries every day. When everything is working right and the solar panels get enough time in the sun each day the batteries are always fully charged and able to meet the various demands of the day.
There was a point this summer that I found that the battery was not charging the same way any more. Regardless of the time in the sun, the position that I placed the trailer, or even being plugged into the truck, the battery would not charge. I began to wonder if the solar cells had broken, or if there was a wire in the cell that had come loose. I thought perhaps that the batteries were old and in need of being replaced due to long use. I theorized about a lot of things, coming up with many ideas and possible solutions, but never ended up doing anything about it.
This fall, when it came time to winterize the trailer, I did all of the normal things that you do: flushing the water system, putting food grade antifreeze in the traps, and closing up all the windows and vents. Then it came time to pull the batteries. I opened the battery cases, thinking that it would be the last time that I would pull these batteries before replacing them next spring, due to their challenges this past summer. But when I opened the case, I noticed something that made my power issues make a bit more sense. There are two batteries that are connected with one wire that makes the system have and hold extra power.
This ONE wire, as important, yet small as it is, had come loose and was no longer connected to the one battery, and as such, had rendered the whole system unable to recharge, or to release power.
Ironically, this was something that, if I had checked it in the summer, would have taken under a minute to remedy. However, I did not do this, and we lived with a depleted system, that was unreliable, mostly powerless, and was unable to perform in the way that it was designed and meant to. Reconnecting that wire to where it needed to be could have been a game changer for us. Instead, it limited our capacity to do some of the things that we would have otherwise enjoyed doing.
We are wired in such as way that as humans that we need to “charge our batteries”… spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally and more. PHYSICALLY, our bodies need to intake a certain amount of energy through food each day, but also need to burn energy each day to keep working well. EMOTIONALLY, we all have a reservoir that needs to be filled through friendships, community, retreat, rest, renewal, play, and love. When the reservoir is low and not being filled at the rate it is depleted, we feel it. We might even find ourselves saying, “I am feeling really drained right now.” MENTALLY, there are so many variables at play in this area. But, we all need to be mentally stimulated, challenged, appreciated and validated, seen and heard, but also reminded that we are loved where we are at. SPIRITUALLY, we were made by God to enjoy His presence, love and community. He made us for relationship with Himself, with others, and with creation. God made us able to experience Him, to connect with, and be filled by Him.
This season of life has made many people feel like they are not running at full capacity, trying to function with a depleted battery that they are having trouble charging. It may be necessary to pause, open up the cover of our lives, and take a good look around to see if there is anything loose, missing or disconnected. You may even need to have someone do that with you. This can happen through asking good questions, listening prayer, coaching, and perhaps even talking through where you have been, and where you are wanting to go in order to figure out where you are at right now.
If you are feeling like this and need some tools and resources to do this we would love to talk with you to help you to reconnect your batteries, or even just reposition yourself with God in order to recharge or refill.
Four things that you can do today to start this process:
Stop running like everything is working and thinking that you will have the needed energy to do it. Your expectations for yourself may be killing you. Recognize where you are at and realize that it’s time for a change. Likely if you got this far, you already have a sense that something needs to change. You may know exactly what area of your life is needing attention.
Take some time to look under the cover of your life and ask some good questions of yourself. How am I doing right now? What do I feel like right now? Then ask, why do I feel like that, or what is underneath that feeling, or causing it. What is the state of my battery right now (full, empty, draining or filling)? Why do I think that is the case? Don’t keep doing the same thing, wondering why it’s not working without taking the time to open up the battery case to see what is wrong. We waste far too much time wondering and thinking, when sometimes we simply need to check it out. If left unattended and unwatched our batteries can become low and overdrawn. When it gets to this point, it may take longer to recharge.
Take some time to pray and ask Jesus what He thinks about what you are feeling and if there is any reason why you you may be feeling disconnected, or like your battery is not charging. Ask Him if there is any disconnect or blockage to your batteries being charged.
Do something about it! If Jesus gives you an insight, respond. If you need to make a change, take that step. If you are needing to talk to someone, reach out courageously. Often the length of time we remain in a threshold is connected with us stepping in and acting on what we know needs to happen or change. When you have an idea of what to do, invite Gods wisdom, presence, and support, and then go for it!
