This morning I received an interesting blog from ARE which bemoans the fact that there is something terribly wrong. It seems there is an epidemic of what I’ll call hopelessness that is sweeping the church these days. It appears that many, including yours truly, at times miss what I am going to call the tides of life.
Twice a day the oceans shift according to lunar cycles and the grace of science to bring in the tide, and then to have it recede. That means four times a day things change. Life brings with it a cyclic nature, and we have to look at where we fix our gaze to see how well we will live.
I’m fairly happy go lucky, have a beautiful and loving wife, great sons and wonderful daughters-in-law, and life presents no major challenges along the way. If you’ll permit me, I want to describe this type of attitude to living as my “bobber” approach to life. At times I tend to float on top of things, almost oblivious to the tides of life. Up and down local doesn’t matter when one is at the top of their game.
At other times, I either change my focus, or other people change that focus for me. I begin to get myself into a fixed state. Rather than being on top of things, I’m in a different place, and the natural flow of things is disrupted. Life changes dramatically for me when that happens. I fix my position in life- let’s say at low tide- and twice a day I’m doused by bad planning. If I fix my position in life at high tide, twice a day the bottom falls out from below me and everything falls apart-sounds like Mondays, right?
I’m not for a moment belittling anyone who does what I do. I’m just noting that when my focus on life changes from dynamic to static, I am headed for more trouble than it’s worth. Instead of being on top of the situation (my bobber analogy) I choose at times to fix my position which I think would be akin to building a house right on the shoreline of the ocean. It’s just the wrong place to be, and I’ll be reminded of that at least four times a day.
The tides of life challenge us to be wise in our choices as to what we spend our time thinking about. Vigilance in remaining dynamic seems to work so much better than being static. The trick is to recognize the tidal side of things in advance! I realize that some are not in a position to be able to recognize the dynamic side of things, as I find myself at times. Yet our common brokenness is best served when we turn to God to be our provider, to somehow gently get us to release our grip on the controls of life and turn them over God's divine control.
Perhaps at that moment, and maybe even better said, when we let go and let God, we are in the best of places!
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