UMC20240728 - Stop fighting against the river¶
One image that has been present in my quiet times for a while now is the image of life as a flowing river and how we live within that river. We either allow the river to carry us in its current or we try and fight against the current. Either way, we are carried downstream. The difference being that one way we exert no energy and the other, we use a ton of energy fighting against the current.
I love this idea of looking at where our energy is going. I have tried during prayer, at a body-feeling level, to determine what a task feels like when fighting against vs what a task feels like moving with the current. Obsessively trying to get my boss to assign me to a new project that will boost my career uses up a ton of energy and doesn't change my boss's mind. Either my boss will give it to me or they won't. Both choices carry me down river. I have found that we can know when we are fighting "what is" when we are being obsessive or addictive or controlling. It is hard to know when we are doing this. Prayer helps.
There is a beautiful paragraph in the AA Big Book that has the same sentiment: "Most people try to live by self-propulsion. Each person is like an actor who wants to run the whole show; is forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery and the rest of the players in his own way. If his arrangements would only stay put, if only people would do as he wished, the show would be great. Everybody, including himself, would be pleased. Life would be wonderful."
You cannot contain a tree, it will break through concrete. A river flows in one direction, you cannot push against it. Stop fighting against the river.
Lord, may I love you with all my heart, may I not lean on my own understanding, may I submit to you in all my ways and trust that you will make my path straight.
Love, Cliff