A Trustworthy Mainstream

Okay...I'm finally paddled enough to catch up. My wife's health situation continues to improve. My thanks to all who have offered prayers and encouragement; you have been the channels of God's healing power. If you're interested in specifics about her present condition, e-mail us at poseg8@sbcglobal.net.

We're been through the kind of circumstance over the past few weeks that reminds us all of how precarious and unpredictable life can be. Some of us in our culture live with a dangerous illusion about how much control we think we have over our circumstances. In fact, we manage and maintain less than we think.

That's scary to those of us who are control freaks. Or, in an odd kind of way, it can be a freeing thing. I think back to the image with which I started this blog months ago - the image of floating an Ozark stream. A canoe trip on a river has risk associated with it. Obstacles in the water can be hidden until hit. Rapids can take us right into dangerous circumstances. An upright canoe can become a tipped trap in a heartbeat. Snakes dropping out of overhanging branches...well, you get the idea. The river has a power and a force of its own. We don't control it, it controls us.

However, the mainstream is trustworthy. The mainstream of a river moves resolutely downstream and ultimate to another river, then to an ocean somewhere. It will achieve its goal. If we stay with it, we will travel where we need to and want to go.

God is not necessarily a safety net, protecting us from the tips, turns, and bumps in life. God is the mainstream, carrying us through the hazards and the hits, moving us toward the mainstream's destiny - as individual followers of Jesus, as congregations, and as the whole Body of Christ.

Sounds good in theory...sometimes tough to buy into it when the waters get rough and the boat is battered. What do you think. It's good to be back with you. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.