Where the Water Flows
Sometimes, after a challenging day or week, I struggle to see anything “good” around me. My nickname on such occasions is Eeyore among those who know me best. Maybe I assume the light and life of Christ is absent or something, but the fact is, they are not. Christ lives in me. He lives in the heart of every believer. I love the imagery of Psalm 46:4, Ezekiel 47:9, and Revelation 22:1 in this regard. God’s presence flows into the wastelands of my heart, and everything lives.
Light in My Darkness
One evening, years ago, our church youth group met at our house. I was a bit young, but Mom & Dad let me go into the basement to hang with the big kids. Danny, my best friend’s older brother, could tell the best stories. He was especially skilled at telling ghost stories. Ever since that night, I would beg my parents not to make me go into the basement alone—or at least let one of my sisters go with me.
Cool Water
Scooping the moisture out of their makeshift cisterns made from broken pottery laid in a shallow hole to sweat the ground or capture the dew, Bedouins had to strain out as much mud as possible to get a drink. The water was not clean, certainly not the kind you might think of at an oasis in the middle of a desert. Yet, for some odd reason, God’s people preferred muddy water to pure, clean, artisan well water. It’s a powerful image Jeremiah uses to depict the lunacy of looking for life apart from God.
Life & Death
I’m watching my dog die, slowly as the inoperable tumor grows at a remarkable rate. It won’t be long before the growth wins out and her body succumbs to the inevitable. Death. We have our platitudes to ease the pain of loss, but in the end, it’s a loss of a faithful vibrant family “friend”. And even though she is struggling to walk, breathe, and eat, you can see in her eyes a desire to “go” on the next adventure.
Know, Be, Give
Back in my seminary days, a group of us stumbled upon the game Diplomacy—a multiplayer board game of strategy and negotiations (read, scheming and deception). Just like the name indicates, play revolved around “diplomatic” talks between the armies and governments of Europe in the early 1900s. Once a plan was brokered, players revealed their final tactics to discover the loyalty or betrayal of their assumed allies. Curiously, we got through one round of play and feelings were so hurt the game came to a grinding halt never to play again.
Awakening
The Long Winter, if you recall from The Chronicles of Narnia, stretched out 100 years under the White Witch’s cruelty and vigilance. Though winter, Narnians were unable to celebrate Christmas or barely able to carve out a living with no real hope except for a prophecy that Aslan would soon appear marking the return of Spring and the end of the Age of Winter. The arrival of the four Pevensie children initiated this change—Lengten was on the horizon.
