Pond Water

Back in the glory days, I played competitive high school basketball.  I never made star player status as I had two problems with the game.  One was dribbling and the other was shooting.  The ball kept getting away from me and the hoop never was quite big enough to accommodate my shots!  But, it was a good time.  It was a time which left me with a lot of memories.  I remember one of my teammates whose nickname was "Pondwater," a name he earned because he was so slow getting up and down the court.

 

Remembering my attempts at being a star and my friend's lack of speed on the court sent me to thinking about my spiritual journey.  While some may be amazed at the leap, it is where I ended up, nonetheless.  When I remember my spiritual life as the younger man I once was, I think it was a life of faith which was  always in a hurry to get somewhere.  I tried and worked at all sorts of disciplinary structures to sharpen my spiritual life and bring me the sought after spiritual blessings.  As the years have turned me into an old man, I am coming to awareness that my spiritual growth is more like pond water.  It is slow and not hurried.  The blessings and spiritual insights come, but never as hurried as a racing stream.  More like pond water is how it is.

 

Some might say that life slows down some as we get older and there will no arguments made against that reality, but is also seems that the blessings of the spiritual life come ever so slowly as well.  And, it is also seems that the ones received are not necessarily the ones sought, but the ones which the Spirit turns loose on the other side of the pond.  They finally make it to the place where I am, but in their own time and in their own way.  Being blessed is not about what I do to insure the blessing, but about the grace and mercy of the One who sends the blessings.