Lightning strikes

As I turned to walk back with Dusty this afternoon, I noticed what they call the television ‘mast’ at Durris, a spike stretching into the sky across the Dee Valley from us which transmits the television signals. 

Thirty years ago a lightning strike took out the Durris mast, and it took three months to restore tv reception to the area. With two small children at the time, I found it a fun time of playing more board games and freeing the children from the tyranny of the box.

That Durris mast looked so vulnerable today. And it made me think.

When we put our spiritual aerials up, we make ourselves vulnerable. Vulnerable to the mockery of the world. Just yesterday I heard a four-minute monologue by an atheist who equated religion with ignorance. Basically he asserted that you have to be stupid to believe in God.

It also makes us vulnerable to attack from forces which resist God. Unseen forces. The enemy of Christians – the devil.

Peter warns that the devil prowls around looking for someone to devour. Evil is real, and his aim is to destroy faith in a God who loves his creatures so much that he died to save them. 

So if you’ve put your spiritual antennae up, however tentatively, don’t be surprised when you get interference - when your mind is assailed with doubts, or when others tease or ridicule you. 

Don’t be surprised; be ready. Put on the armour of God mentioned in Ephesians 6. Stand in the strength of Jesus.

Don’t let a lightning strike take out your connection to God. 

Oh, and in case you think I'd forgotten: Happy 4th of July!