Syncing with God
“May Day, May Day, we are sinking!”
“Hallo—Zis is ze German Coast Guard.”
“We’re sinking, we’re sinking!”
“What . . . what are you sinking about?”
I am thinking about syncing.
I enjoy a Fit bit watch. It registers heart minutes when I exercise – that is, it tells me the equivalent of stairs climbed, kilometres walked and the number of minutes of heart exercise at a certain stress level. But if my watch goes out of sync with my cell phone, then it doesn’t even know the time of day.
The process of getting back in sync is simple enough but precise. The phone needs to be powered up, the watch needs to be plugged in to a power source and connected to the phone. Syncing is possible among several devices like laptop, desk top computer and cell phone. These devices then communicate in harmony and stay updated.
Communications among computer, smartphone and other devices is possible using WI-Fi, a wireless transmission system. This amazing technology got me thinking about metaphorical applications. You can even set up automatic synchronization at specific times or intervals.
Now imagine syncing with God. Syncing is moving in harmony with, being in accord with – in other words being in sync with God. To accomplish this, we need to be connected to the power source God. This can be accomplished daily simply through prayer and meditation.
Other applications from the cyber process can assist our understanding of syncing more effectively with God. Take for example when multiple processes are running at the same time and more than one process has access to the same data or resources at the same time, this can cause data inconsistency. To remove this data inconsistency, processes should be synchronized with each other. That can apply to our prayers and the prayers of our neighbour.
How is the Blue Jays and Yankee game going to be resolved when both sides are praying to God for victory? Or how will our prayers be answered when our enemies are at the same prayer service and praying for another outcome?
Jesus said that if we come to offer our gifts and remember a grievance with our brother, we are to leave our offering and go to be reconciled with our brother first. Then we can go and offer our prayers.
Or if we are cut off from God through sin, how can we expect to reconnect to God? Repentance and reconciliation can make us receptive to God’s graces again. We can be back in the light and know the time of day once again. We can join our brothers and sisters as Christ’s body in the church.
Process synchronization can apply appropriately to church unity where we can all safely share our prayers and resources without interfering with each other. When we gather in ecumenical prayer services, we choose applications, prayer processes, that maintain our resource efficiency and serve our common needs.
My purpose in this reflection is not to dazzle us or to confuse us with high sounding metaphorical applications, but to simplify a process that is beneficial to us. Just as computers can set up automatic synchronization at specific times and intervals, our Christian life can wholly benefit from regularly syncing with God, the power and source of life. Daily prayer and weekly worship can help guarantee our spiritual growth and well being.
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