And yet, and yet…

This past weekend I had a short moment to take a quick hike in Robber’s Cave State Park in OK. It was not much of a hike, so much as a jaunt and a moment for a breath. It had been torrentially raining so the entire way down I could hear rivulets turning into mini cascades and I had to watch my footing for bogs.

Even with all the serene environment around me, there was a note of soft chaos. It was the world breathing back out, futilely trying to soak in the rain as its swollen muddy creeks and rivers waited like dmv traffic for its appointment. Coming from a place that is so drought prone, it can sometimes feel alien to feel the ground squishing and to see buckets of water just flowing. So much is given from the sky, and so much just washes away. And in the swollen lake below, the foam and muddiness transformed what could have been a lovely little lake into a mess.

We often in church pray for revival, and yet I’m not sure we are ready when the Spirit’s torrent comes. Jesus gives and gives of His Spirit to our saturated souls, but it just runs off. We collect more and more for ourselves, but instead of overflow out of our lives, we just have runoff. Is it any wonder that the culture looks at the lives of believers and sees only muddy water, dirty foam, and destruction from our wastefulness downstream?

Whether because sin blocks or selfishness and fear dam up the life giving water of the Spirit, we aren’t meant to hold Him. There is an intrinsic trust that the water that flows in a river will be replenished, and the constant replenishment brings refreshment and life. By our fear and anxiety, do we withhold that life from those that would receive downstream?

Friends, in your spiritual life with Christ you must be able to let go of that which you receive. We are not designed to only receive in our lives spiritually from God; we are designed both to receive and give to others what we’ve been freely given. If you look at your life and feel swollen and purposeless, maybe the problem is that you aren’t receiving what the Lord has for you now because you won’t let His past blessings go.

May we produce overflow, not runoff.