It’s the sound we dread—that horrible chirp-like beep that comes from another room during the lull in conversation. “Oh no,” you think. The smoke detector needs a new battery! You search the house for which one, going room to room. You find it only to pinch your finger because you can’t get the strange plastic cover off. Does it rotate? Does it clip? You finally figure it out only to struggle to get the battery out. Does it slide? Is it clamped?
Then, there’s the worst thought of all, “Do we have any 9 volt batteries?!” Probably not. I went through this on New Year’s Day. Finally locating the right battery, sitting in a drawer outside the package. Is it new? Is it old? I gave up and went to put the battery in the detector. I slid the battery down into place, through the clamps and right up against the contactors. I put the plastic cover back on (it was a clip cover, because I know you’re wondering). I located the “press here to test button”.
Nothing.
Frustrated, I tried again. Nothing. I even did the old “pull it back out and blow on it” trick. Nothing. I jiggled it in place. Nothing. This is not how I wanted to start my new year. It was so tempting to just walk away and hope for the best. But I knew I needed to get it right and hear that terrible test beep or I would regret it. Because it was above the door frame and slightly out of full view, I used my phone like a periscope and saw that the contactors were not aligned properly. All I needed to do was pull the battery up, reverse the contactors with a pivot of the battery, and slide it back down. “Beeeeeeeeeeeeep!” chirped the test sound.
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,…” —Acts 3.19 NIV
Peter makes it clear to his listeners in Acts 3 that our sins will be wiped out by a simple turn away from those sins and toward the Christ (Jesus) who saves and refreshes. The connection here is that life and its fullness really is about a simple pivot. It’s about trading all the things that rob, steal, and destroy our souls for the refreshment of the Lord. Jesus really does save, but we have to pivot—reversing our course by pivoting and connecting to God through Christ properly. Only then will we hear the Beeeeeeeeeeeeep! when life pushes our button and we know it’s all good.
—Pastor Whit