Steady Streams
Last weekend, a few leaders and I attended a “Spiritual Life Retreat” for Fusion Senior High school students (the youth ministry at the church I serve in). The retreat served as a chance for me to get to know how great the teens at our church really are. The highlight came on Saturday night when God showed up. The encounter was real; worship, tears, commitment. These are what retreats are all about, it’s what parents and others pray for-some kind of spiritual high. The problem is though, what goes up must come down.
Please don’t misunderstand me; I love those intense moments that we experience with God. God may show up and speak to us on retreats, on missions trips, at a special service or in a small group setting. Most of our daily life though, does not function on those high plains. There are bills to pay, children to raise, work to do and a million other mundane moments of life that seems far removed from those encounters. And so, many of God’s people seek and need these highs like addicts seek and need a fix to get them by.
This is not how things are supposed to be. Many Christians spend their lives longing for the flash floods of His Spirit, and while those are great and even needed, God is much more interested in the steady streams of our daily lives. A stream that is not overflowing its banks is intentional in its flow and accomplishes much nutrition to the plants and trees that grow along its path. Flash floods come suddenly and can have the potential to cause more harm then good.
I learned years ago, I could no longer go from high to high, because the lows in between were too great and I was sick of the spiritual roller coaster I was riding. It’s like living from paycheck to paycheck, spiritualy speaking. I desire for Him to fill me up and He does, but as soon as I spend anytime in my regular life, it quickly gets depleted and so I come back needing another deposit and the cycle continues.
I remember thinking “there has got to be more to the Christian life than this.” And there is. It begins by realizing first that God is everywhere all the time and that He is always speaking, always directing, always loving His children. The problem is, most of us do not have ears to hear his voice. This life is filled with noise; His is a still small voice (1 Kings 19:12), our lives keep us moving at light speed; to know He is God we must be still (Psalm 46:10), this life teaches us to be strong and sure of our abilities; to approach God we must be dependant on Him and become weak (Matthew 18:4). To decipher His movement in daily life, we must be humble, quiet and still in our hearts.
Could it be that the highs that we have experienced are simply those moments when we positioned ourselves to hear Him through quiet, stillness or humbled dependency?
The intention for our lives is to realize that every mundane moment is God-bathed. I did not say make every moment God-bathed, but simply realize that it already is. Take time to breathe deeply, listen for His voice. He speaks through His word and preachers of course, but he also speaks through art and music and movies and friends and family and He speaks, more often than not, in silence.
To be intentional about letting steady streams flow is to break dependency on the flash floods.
Please don’t misunderstand me; I love those intense moments that we experience with God. God may show up and speak to us on retreats, on missions trips, at a special service or in a small group setting. Most of our daily life though, does not function on those high plains. There are bills to pay, children to raise, work to do and a million other mundane moments of life that seems far removed from those encounters. And so, many of God’s people seek and need these highs like addicts seek and need a fix to get them by.
This is not how things are supposed to be. Many Christians spend their lives longing for the flash floods of His Spirit, and while those are great and even needed, God is much more interested in the steady streams of our daily lives. A stream that is not overflowing its banks is intentional in its flow and accomplishes much nutrition to the plants and trees that grow along its path. Flash floods come suddenly and can have the potential to cause more harm then good.
I learned years ago, I could no longer go from high to high, because the lows in between were too great and I was sick of the spiritual roller coaster I was riding. It’s like living from paycheck to paycheck, spiritualy speaking. I desire for Him to fill me up and He does, but as soon as I spend anytime in my regular life, it quickly gets depleted and so I come back needing another deposit and the cycle continues.
I remember thinking “there has got to be more to the Christian life than this.” And there is. It begins by realizing first that God is everywhere all the time and that He is always speaking, always directing, always loving His children. The problem is, most of us do not have ears to hear his voice. This life is filled with noise; His is a still small voice (1 Kings 19:12), our lives keep us moving at light speed; to know He is God we must be still (Psalm 46:10), this life teaches us to be strong and sure of our abilities; to approach God we must be dependant on Him and become weak (Matthew 18:4). To decipher His movement in daily life, we must be humble, quiet and still in our hearts.
Could it be that the highs that we have experienced are simply those moments when we positioned ourselves to hear Him through quiet, stillness or humbled dependency?
The intention for our lives is to realize that every mundane moment is God-bathed. I did not say make every moment God-bathed, but simply realize that it already is. Take time to breathe deeply, listen for His voice. He speaks through His word and preachers of course, but he also speaks through art and music and movies and friends and family and He speaks, more often than not, in silence.
To be intentional about letting steady streams flow is to break dependency on the flash floods.
5:14 PM
Nice, Vince. Living intentionally is extraordinarily difficult, but the rewards are certainly worth it! I think a lot of people don't live intentionally because of their fear. Change is very scary, because it forces us to realize there is something that we need to change, and we don't like to admit that we are anything but perfect. And even if we do admit that, we often feel helpless to do anything about it. Thanks for the reminder that slow and steady is the way to go. top
2:17 PM
Funny you should mention change Mike. I am down in Nashville at the Emergent convention which is all about postmodernism and spiritual formations and a whole lot more; things that are not always comfortable for most Christians. When we are comfortable, there is a danger of growing stale and when we grow stale, we stop growing and when we stop growing, something in us goes down the path of death. I am learning, as I get older, that the easy way hardly ever leads to life. Have you found this this to be true for you? top