Sunday, May 2nd, "God is a Vacuum"

I never understood why some people say, "God is like a vacuum." That is until I traveled to Alabama with my brother-in-law Mike, who went to Purdue for engineering. In the time it took us to drive from Louisville to Nashville he explained to me how a vacuum actually works. We got on the subject of a vacuum because we were talking about God. Mike said, "I believe God is like a vacuum." I listened and tried to stay interested but my mind wandered a little.

Basically, I understood that a vacuum is simply made up of a canister, bag, or box of some kind that simply has all the air pressure sucked out. The air pressure in the canister is less than the air outside the canister. This causes what is called suction. Your vacuum works because of this process. I have an upright canister vacuum. The moter causes a fan to turn that in turn sucks all the air out of the canister. When the air pressure decreases in the canister the hose connected to it begins to suck in more air bringing with it all the filth I run over with my machine. A filter keeps the trash and dust from clogging the air flow to the fan. As long as the air flow continues the suction continues.

This past weekend I was at Jr. high weekend at Indiana Wesleyan University. While I was lying in the dorm room half asleep the concept that God is like a vacuum finally clicked in my mind and it all made sense. When I lived on campus at IWU it felt like I lived inside a spiritual vacuum. It often felt like we were inside a vacuum canister. Gods pull in our life was powerful and strong as long as we stayed inside the canister, or bubble, we sometimes called it. We were surrounded by preachers, professors, scripture, chapel, prayer, bible studies, and community service. As I visited campus this week, I felt like I had re-entered that canister, and I could feel the pull of God strongly while I was on campus. However, the minute we left I felt life taking over again and that suction power became less and less powerful.

Gods power operates like a vacuum. His holiness is a powerful cleansing tool. If we allow him to he can literally suck all the bad out of our life leaving us clean.

Many things can block this suction power. Things we should never suck into a vacuum can hinder it's flow as well. Such as pennies, nickles, water, or too much dirt or hair at one time. Our spiritual suction can be shut off by sin, bad attitude, skipping church, or just by being too self reliant. The way to get it to work again is simply repent and seek forgiveness. Allow God to do a cleaning work in your life all over again.

Most importantly, remember that God is still God. Sometimes when we can't feel Gods pull in our life we must simply rely on faith that God is still in control. If we can't do anything else in painful situations we must praise Him irregardless. It's amazing how a little praise and worship can get the flow of God back into our life.

Hope you find this encouraging and thought provoking.