July 13, 2026
Power Lines
John 15:5 – “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
Follow a power line far enough and it will always lead you back to a source. The lines that run through neighborhoods and along streets, strung between poles and dropping down to houses, are not generating anything on their own. They are carrying something. The electricity that powers a refrigerator, charges a phone, or runs a heating system did not originate in the wire itself. It originated somewhere else entirely, at a plant miles away in most cases, and the line is simply the means by which that power travels from its source to the place that needs it.
That distinction matters more than it might seem. The line has no power of its own. It is a conductor, designed and built for the specific purpose of staying connected to something that does. A line that has been severed from the grid looks exactly the same as one that has not. It hangs in the same place, runs the same route, enters the house through the same point of connection. But nothing works. The refrigerator is silent, the lights are out, and no amount of effort applied to the appliances themselves will change that, because the problem is not with the appliances. The problem is the broken connection between the line and its source.
We were designed the same way. Not to generate, but to conduct. The gifts, the energy, the capacity to serve and love and endure that God places in a person’s life are not self-sustaining. They flow from a connection, and when that connection is neglected the output changes whether we immediately recognize the reason or not. We keep going through the motions, showing up in the same places, running the same routes, but something is noticeably quieter than it used to be.
Staying connected to God is not a spiritual luxury for people with extra time. It is the only explanation for why anything works at all. The line that understands what it is built for stays close to its source, because it knows that everything it carries depends on that.
Today’s Prayer: Lord, remind me that I am not the source of anything good in my life. I cannot afford a broken connection, and I do not want to live like I can. Amen.
Reflection Question: What does your current connection to God actually look like on a daily basis?