“Time is like a river. You cannot touch the water twice,
because the flow that has passed will never pass again.” – Credited to a USMC
vet
We all tend to watch time pass in different ways, one is
sitting on the banks static, watching time pass before you. Not much changes,
yet everything is different as the river of time flows by. These people tend to
sit in the same church, listen to the same sermons and talk about the same
things week in and week out. Nothing wrong, but things become static and your
relationship with God becomes richer, but only incrementally and slowly.
The other type of person jumps into the river and watches
time pass while frolicking in the change. There is nothing static, the shore
changes, the river changes from slow and calm to fast and violent, often over
very short periods. You can be traversing a class 5 rapid that falls into a
pool of clear blue water. I think of Huka Falls when giving that analogy, where
there is a lake of calm, this narrow short channel that once you get into it means
you have no choice then to go with the flow and hope you exit alive!
These type of Christians worship God daily and where ever
they happen to be. They are not set in the traditions and will often try to “drag”
others into the water. You cannot help it with the rush and the calm you can
experience often shortly after each other. You tend to help others without the
church’s guidance or structure, and often that gets messy.
So one lives order and understand God, the other lives
in chaos and experiences God. Are you in the river or on the bank? Think about
it … neither is bad.