ZAP!

Have you ever felt like you were overloaded with negative sludge that has built up from all the cares of the world? Wouldn’t you love to simply zap all that junk away?

Many times I have found that natural scientific principles help me to understand spiritual principles. The best example of this is seed, time and harvest. Jesus used that example of a natural principle to explain the spiritual principle of giving and receiving. My own examples are not always that perfect an explanation, but I find that they help me to grasp and visualize aspects of the Kingdom of God that are otherwise elusive for me.

Yesterday, I pondered the thought that the human spirit is like a rechargeable battery, continually being drained by the world and in need of a Divine recharge. Chasing that line of thought, I discovered a natural principle that gave me a new revelation.

Lightning is a large scale static discharge that operates on much the same principle as touching someone’s hand or something metal and generating a shock. This is the stripped-down ultra-simple explanation of how that works. All atoms have either a positive charge (protons), negative charge (electrons) or no charge (neutrons). The charged atoms are called ions. Static discharge occurs when an object (such as a cloud or a person’s body) becomes overloaded with electrons. When that negatively charged object comes close to a positively charged object (such as the earth or a doorknob), the electrons discharge or jump to the positively charged object. When that happens, the first object loses its negative charge and becomes positively charged. The overload of negative ions is moved to the second object and the first object does not have them anymore.

I see this as a good illustration of 1 Peter 5:7 - Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you. Picture this: We go through our daily lives gathering negative cares and worries from the world around us until we are overloaded with them. We become negatively charged. James 4:8 tells us that when we draw near to God, He draws near to us. When we come into close contact with our Father, who is positively charged, we are able to discharge all our negativity onto Him. He can handle it and He won’t be affected by it. Then, we are positively charged. So, another interpretation of 1 Peter 5:7 might be – Discharging all your care upon Him; for He cares for you.

I like the idea of discharge. When I think of casting, I think of a heavy load that I have to lift and heave over to God. The notion of discharge makes me think of myself in a dark cloud that zaps off of me when I come close to God. I understand that the literal meaning of the word “cast” is to “throw off”, implying that I must take action in order to make it happen. Yet, throwing something off seems to involve such effort. Whereas, if my cares are discharged; then the action on my part is simply to draw near to God. I can visualize that. I can get my faith behind it. I can choose to believe that by my act of drawing close to my beloved Lord, I am surrendering all my cares and burdens, all the negative sludge that has accumulated in my soul, over to Him. Zap! It’s gone.