Do you know the difference between a river and a flood?

Do you remember hurricane Katrina? Katrina was the single most catastrophic natural disaster in US history.  I remember watching the news and seeing the chilling effects of the hurricane.  I was thinking; how can water, the giver of life to so many living creatures and things, be so disruptive.  Which brings us to the idea of why you will absolutely want to read this post.  Before I start to humble us, I want to propose a question; do you know the difference between a river and a flood?

A river is a water system that flows in one direction.  A river has banks on both sides.  A river can carve through even the solidest of rock. A river has somewhere to go and it beams with life to animals and plants.  A river can provide so much in resources.  A river can serve many uses for people including drinking water, transportation, recreation, land-use, and electricity.  A river has a clear focus.

A flood, on the other hand, has no predictable direction. A flood is generally shallow but does massive damage. The water that has no boundaries, no purpose, just damage everywhere. There is no drinking, no shipping of goods, no waterskiing, no native trees or vegetation, or no dams.   All a flood does is destroy.

If we take the idea of a river and flood another notch up on the conceptual ladder; we see that most of us want to live life like rivers. We want to move in a forward direction.  We would like to have those control systems in our lives saying that we are doing a fantastic job or when things are not going well; have someone saying things need to be different and give feasible solutions.  We want to feel needed. We want our cups to overflow with the goodness of life. Just like any river, we want an understandable direction in life.

There are times when life is like a flood.  Our life does not always look the way we planned.  We sometimes lose control and hurt the ones around us. We may often lose sight of the goal.  We may live our lives in absolute chaos; destroying ourselves and our relationships.  Our cup is bone dry, so how can we give?

We offer ourselves to Him; with all of our imperfections, insecurities, hate, greed, or whatever is holding us back. We offer ourselves to Him. God will always listen. He always has listened even when we have turned away. He is the guiding light that we need in our lives.  We do not have to start out fully committed, all we have to do is talk. If we talk aloud or in our head to Him.  He is our truth, love, and hope.

In this post, I first talked about Hurricane Katrina. I saw graphic pictures about the power of water.  I then drew a comparison between a river and a flood.  I applied the themes of a river and flood to life.  I finally concluded with a solution. The solution was and always is God.  

 

CALL TO ACTION

1. How was my writing in this post?
2. How can I improve on my posts?
3. Do you think this is a reasonable solution?
4. What may be the limitations that are hindering giving oneself to God?
5. How can you apply this to your life?

Please answer any or all of these questions in the comment section below….