Attractive.

From my desk in work I can look out of a wonderfully large window. The down side of this is that I don’t have a view! All I can see is four floors of windows on the opposite side of the courtyard – not terribly inspiring. However, if I look up I see something intriguing, something that has a dangerous edge to its appearance – a lightning conductor. It looks like a huge hypodermic needle strapped to the corner of the building and reaching up to the sky.

This architectural appendage has only one purpose; it is not to be beautiful, or threatening, or to publicise – it is there only to attract lightning. That is its sole function. Indeed it has been designed to be as attractive to lightning as possible so that should a storm occur where a bolt of lightning is looking for somewhere to land, it will choose this small metal needle rather than the building to which it is attached.

As Christian’s, I guess that we are not too dissimilar from this lightning rod; our purpose is to deliberately attract Christ, and to become attractive to the Holy Spirit.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” Jam 4:8 NAS

Our desire, our sole purpose should be to live attractively to Christ! It should motivate our every action and decision.

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Phil 3:12-14 NIV

But it doesn’t stop there either!
The lightning conductor does not simply absorb the power of the lightning (otherwise it would be destroyed – the power would be too much for it to bear), it channels it down into the earth. Likewise, we too should not aim to selfishly absorb everything we receive from God; we need to reveal it, show it, share it. People can only understand God through us until they experience His presence for themselves. Therefore allow God to flow through you, compelling others into His saving arms.

- Andrew Carey