be a river...

You split the earth with rivers.
-Habakkuk 3:9

I was standing by this river and was struggling to have a quiet time before the Lord but not succeeding. My mind raced with thoughts about my life, ministry and the future. As usual I was bombarded with a thousand little paths that screamed for my feet to follow. It's always that way, it seems I fight with contentment more than anything else.

As I sat there watching the cold water pour down out of the snow capped peaks, I could feel my incessant need for answers begin to melt away like the water streaming past me. I stood there in the cool of the early morning with the sun beginning to creep over the eastern hillside, each ray a stake into the heart of those vampiric feelings.

I could feel the wrestling begin to fade and a still voice has become clearer in the echoes of the rippling waters.

"Look at the river" He said. "It has been right here for many generations, simply flowing down the mountainside into the valley. Countless people have sought rest, food, pleasure and inspiration from its melodic presence."

"It has hardly changed, a little here and there, sometimes swollen and sometime not but always there. It's not concerned about being anything else, no comparisons, no judgment...just a river, flowing."

"Be a river, that's all I ask."

"Let the heavy waters flow down from the heights and purge your streams of the stuff that has polluted your heart. Just flow freely and purely."

"Simply be present...ever flowing, that's all I ask."

"Just be here for thirsty travelers, burdened minds and restless hearts. Allow the hungry to feed from the bounty of your depths if they choose. Let Me quiet their loud hearts and untwist the knots in their souls with My soothing melodic rhythms that I desire to spill out over the riverbed of your spirit."

"Be a river...that's all I ask."