CENTER YOUR SERVOS

The Boy Scouts in Wessington Springs are working with robots these days. No, they’re not using them to light their fires and erect their tents. They are building them to learn technology and communication skills. The “Boe-Bots,” as they are called, are not the humanoid robots of science-fiction movies but amount essentially to a circuit board on wheels. They can sense their surroundings and move accordingly, based on instructions their operators give them via computer.

One of the first steps in preparing these robots for their work is what’s called centering the servos. The servo motors that control the wheels of the robots arrive not having been finally adjusted at the factory. The boys have to make small adjustments so that a given command from the computer will result in the expected response. This is done by adjusting the motors so that a stop command from the computer actually results in the motors being stopped. If a screw on the motor is turned too much to the right, the motors will keeping going in one direction, even though the computer says, “Stop.” Too much to the left, and it will go in the opposite direction. Center the screw just right and the motor stops in its tracks, ready to take further commands correctly. However, if the builder does not take the time to go through this very important step, every command or situation encountered will result in something very unexpected, and the Boe-Bot will be rendered virtually uncontrollable.

Human beings are obviously not robots, but we, too, need to be “centered.” If not, the various “input” we receive in the course of everyday life can send us careening off in unexpected and even dangerous directions. Unlike the robots, we can’t be centered by turning a screw. Our centering takes place when we take the time to focus on our Lord and his design for us. God has created us in his image and has placed his own special “circuitry” within us. If we center ourselves in him and prepare ourselves to receive the commands he gives us, we will respond appropriately and faithfully to the situations we encounter in our everyday lives.

Such centering can happen when we take the time to study and meditate on God’s word in the Bible--or simply sit in silence listening to him. As we begin this new year, I invite you to take the time to center your spiritual “servos” by taking the time to focus on our Lord Jesus Christ.

As an aside, in this time of political transition, it is important for everyone to realize that Jesus is not on the “right” (conservative) or the “left” (liberal), but Jesus himself is the centering point on which everything in life depends and in whom it finds its resting place.

Take the time daily to center yourselves, and your actions will be much more likely to in line with his design. You may still go off in the wrong direction on occasionally, human beings being what we are, but you will be better prepared to stop and evaluate our actions, based on his commands.

Blessings to you this day.
John