afloat

One of our favorite middle school pastimes growing up was to borrow a giant crocodile float from a neighbor’s garage and haul it over a barbed-wire fence that led to a cow pasture behind our neighborhood. Some call it trespassing. We’d drag it through the field and down to a hidden pond that sat way back in the property. This pond was probably where evil originated… dark brown from all the mud and cow manure, surrounded by haunted trees, and filled with every living species of poisonous snake.

But we had under-developed frontal lobes. So we would play rock, paper, scissors and the loser was forced to paddle out into the pond on the giant crocodile float while everyone else bombed him with cow patties. One point for every direct hit. The preferred cow patties were dry on the outside but squishy in the middle so they held together through the air but offered a gift on impact.

Amidst the barrage of manure, a bigger danger always loomed… staying afloat on the crocodile. Almost everyone ended up in the snake water because they would lose their balance trying to navigate the cow patties being hurled their way. Boys became men when they fell in that water.

If you were to describe the condition of your soul this advent season, I wonder if trying to stay afloat would be accurate? Finding equilibrium with all we face in life is difficult. A jam-packed schedule, a tough season of marriage, parenting challenges, financial strain, job dissatisfaction, relational conflict, health setbacks, the political climate, and family dysfunction are only a few of the things flying our way that threaten to destabilize us.

Without constant attunement to the Lord, the nature of our circumstances becomes the primary influence over the condition of our interior life. No wonder we are fearful, anxious, and untethered.

In the “limit-experiences” of our lives, the Lord comes to us through the prophet Isaiah with an invitation… “Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live…” (Is. 55:3).

These words of compassion from the Lord are timeless. Come to me… listen to me… your soul will come alive. We find our center balance, despite the turbulence of life, when we engage with God through prayer and the slow reading of His word. While God doesn’t necessarily take away our difficult circumstances, he does offer the gift of his presence as we walk through them. It’s in the unhurried presence of God where we discover the contentment and restoration we desire.

The reminder of Advent is that God is available to us. As Isaiah says, when we come to the Lord and open ourselves to hear him speak, our souls find life.