I was at the Missouri River the other evening. Just me and the river. There were no fishermen, no idling cars, no walkers or dogs, just me and the river. The thought went through my mind, “Boy that is a lazy river.” You see it wasn’t flowing super fast, no whitecaps, no hustling water fall sound. Just patient and steady, heading south as it has for hundreds of years.
That day was a day of great encouragement. I received a card in the mail this morning with the following written in it…
And great discouragement. “Dan you are not going to get the job when you thought you would.” ‘Lord, do you really mean more waiting?’
Holy Buckets – the ebbs and flows of life. The ups and down of the day. The turbulent mixed with the peaceful. Just like the river! Peaceful and steady, turbulent and messy. Within it’s banks and not, not stopping to look for another answer, just doing what rivers do – flowing in spite of the blocks, the down turns, the situations – just flowing.
In the natural, flowing doesn’t always appear to be the right thing or the popular thing. A river just has to be. The Bible gives us the admonition of being over the doing.
Acts 17:28, ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’
So how do we be? Great question, if I knew the right and universal equation…I would put in a book and pay off your mortgage. In jest I write that. There is a universal equation. Tried and true. Time tested and battered rammed through the centuries.
Prov. 3:5&6…”5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.”
It is so simple, yet we make it so complex. This simple truth is…
John 7:38 & 39, Jesus took his stand. He cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says.”
When you are consumed with doing, your being is totally upside down, because you don’t know who you are.
When you know what you are supposed to be, your doing flows out of who you are!
So who are we? What are supposed to be? What does Jesus say about that?
Mark 1:17, “Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.”
Acts 1:8, “..And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere…”
You will grow tired in your doing. In your being… Don’t get weary, He will be your rest!
Doing will cause you to lose hope in results. In your being… Don’t lose hope, He is our Greatest Hope!
Doing, can cause you to be confused on love. In your being… Don’t lose your Love, remember greater love has no man than this, that Jesus laid down His life for you and I!
Oh yeah the river…in the words of Rodney Atkins in “The River Knows”…
‘Cause the river don’t talk, the river don’t care.
Where you’ve been, what you’ve done,
Why it is your standin’ there.
It just rolls on by whisperin’ to your soul,
It’s gonna be alright, the river just knows!
And so does the Maker of that river!