Sittin’ By The Dock Of The River...

Whenever I get the pleasure of spending time with one of our congregations along the Ohio River, I make a point of pausing at least for a bit to watch the water roll by. Sometimes there is something to focus on, like a boat or driftwood, and of course sometimes there is something to ignore, like litter as it drifts along. But there is always a sense of wonder and renewal in me at those times, perhaps because my grandfather was a ship captain and he passed along to my mother and his grandchildren a sense of wonder and awe of waterways. Whether I am at the edge of a deep river or an ocean, I feel its infinite connection with the rest of the world, in the way in which I can start from where I am and go to any continent, even if it may take a long while and require a complex course. And from that new place, I could again go anywhere, and then somewhere else, and so on and so on crisscrossing the globe forever.
Looking at our lives in Christ can be the same experience if we give enough room for God to inspire us. There are infinite possibilities in our journeys with Jesus, no limits to where God may lead us next or the time after. For some people this can be so scary that they sort of sit down wherever they are spiritually and say “no further!” to God and themselves. God still loves them in their stuck-ness, but those folks are both missing out on some grand adventures as well as limiting how God could express love for the world through their lives. 
The amazing thing about God is that there is no need for a river as deep and powerful as the Ohio for God to move tons of miracles. Perhaps we see our lives as being more like a quiet pond or small creek. Most of us experience life like the creek at Waycross, rushing sometimes and dry others. But God can move in all of those circumstances to work miracles of love and transformation in our lives and in the people around us, if we simply let the flow of God?s love take us to the next place, the next place of adventure, hope, and lov