I have spent some time thinking about water this week. The text which I have been working with for Sunday has to do with the “living water” and how Jesus offered himself up as such. Water has such a huge important role in our lives. Our bodies are eighty plus percent water. If we were to dehydrate we could literally become a pile of dust! Water gives life, empowers us to live, and keeps us living . . .it is amazing stuff! We can’t grow food or live at all without water. Jesus’ statement that he is the “living water” is powerful and profound.
Clearly we have to realize that the text of John’s Gospel is written sixty years after Jesus’ death on the cross so the words may have been embellished to reflect not what Jesus said, but what the author of John’s gospel thought about Jesus and the importance he attributed to the man who later would become known as God in the flesh to many.
In the course of the reading that I have done for the week, I ran across this.
“Spend some time by the sea, paying attention to the rise and fall of the tides. Honor what is rising and falling within you. Listen to what the sound of the waves evokes within you. Take time to free-write in a journal in response.”
— Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire
To stay by the water feeling the movement of the tide and the pulse of the wave, to become synched with the timing and rhythm takes time. To feel what the waves are evoking in you is not an afternoon at the beach but a suggestion to connect over a longer, much longer period of time.
In this hectic age of going and doing constantly, not only in our own lives but the lives of our children whose calendars are as full of events constantly as our own; it is particularly important to take the time to feel the world around us and experience the power of feeling the pull of the moon along with the tides. Know the intimate tug of the water flowing in ever so slowly and hear the rising moon as it whispers to your soul.
Listen.
In that gentleness and calm there is a call to individuality and the longing for community. Seek the border between the two and respect that border. We need both. Find them both in your inner spirit.
Take a breath and hear the flow of living water.
The water of our souls can become stagnant, many of us realize that and seek the refreshing flow of new life that comes from a community that gathers with respect for one another and for the community. We are one as individuals and we are one community. Each always refreshes the other.
We need you, as much as you need us, as much as each of us needs the time away and alone.
Always.
Blessings friends!
