Switches

Switches. Every house has them - light switches on walls, switches on every appliance, even switches in our showers and tubs, and every house has a breaker box full of switches that trump every other switch in the house. 

Do you know how a switch works? Simply put in 5^th grade science lesson fashion, a switch completes a circuit. When the switch is “off,” then the circuit is open, preventing the flow of power from getting where it’s intended to go. When the switch is “on,” the circuit is made complete, allowing power to flow freely.

God’s been speaking to me a lot recently about the concept of switches in our lives. There are certain things that happen throughout our days that quickly flip a switch within us and oftentimes, it’s not pretty when the lights come on! Others have switches with delays – they complete the circuit and turn on the power eventually, but not immediately. Switches are intended to work instantaneously. There shouldn’t be a delay. If there’s a delay, then the switch is faulty and it needs to be fixed or even replaced. Other times, we flip a switch with a specific purpose planned and nothing happens at all. Whether the breaker is flipped or the electricity is out or there’s faulty wiring somewhere within, something is preventing the power from flowing where it should go and many times, WE’RE left feeling powerless when this happens.

One of the things that God has particularly been working on in me is the idea that I’ve permitted others to have control over certain switches in my heart, my mind, my emotions. I’ve given them power to wound or anger me – power they were never intended to have. Sometimes it It’s seemed that I’ve just stood there, as if in a dream, watching as someone flipped a switch, triggering things within me that left me in a horrible emotional state. Then….I woke up…. I realized that when I allowed someone else to flip a switch that triggered negative emotions within me, that I was allowing their power to surge through me, overloading my circuits and causing me to blow a breaker.  

It was as if the lights went on, illuminating my understanding. I realized that I was the only one with the right and authority to flip switches in my OWN house. Anyone else who was trying to do that was trespassing. I decided that I had the right and the authority to either let those individuals in or to keep them out of my house and even out of my yard.

Not only that, I took responsibility for my own actions.  I understood that while I might not be able to determine the actions of others, I could control my own actions and reactions and I needed to make conscious decisions that would determine where I was going to allow the power to flow in my life. In each situation, I need to determine which switches were to be on and which were to be turned off.

Some of us have faulty wiring. Things have happened in our lives that have caused short circuits, blown fuses and power failures. That old wiring isn’t working anymore. This kind of renovation goes deep and it comes with a cost. It’s found behind the walls and can be impossible to replace without doing some tearing down first. We need to be willing to allow the Master Electrician to come in, rip out what’s faulty and replace it with wiring that’s perfect. We need to be willing to pay the price of the pain that may come during the renovation and be willing to deal with things looking torn apart for a while. Then, we need to learn from Him how to operate the new switches and wiring and ultimately take the authority to flip the switches in our house or leave them off.

While learning truths like this often isn’t fun because they come as a result of challenging times, we can be grateful for them because of the renovation that occurs when we allow the process to happen. For me, I’ve needed to learn that I control the switches. I govern my actions and reactions. Those are the areas of MY responsibility. These are the places where I have power that’s found in the form of self-control and conscious decision-making. When others try to come and flip those switches, even those who I can’t change being a part of my life, I have the right to not allow them to flip my switches.  This sometimes means keeping certain people at a distance so they can’t reach those switches or, when it’s possible, keeping those individuals out of my yard entirely if that’s a decision that needs to be made for mental and emotional health.

Ultimately, God is our power source. He’s the One whose power courses through our circuits. He gives us authority to choose when to flip switches or not. We need to know Him as our Power Source and know the switches within us, using those to their greatest capacity, allowing His power to flow fully, illuminating the world with His light as it pours out of the windows of our houses. We get to be the conduits and He gives us the choice of how we’re going to walk in it.