December 06, 2013
Beached
Recently dozens of pilot whales have shown up in
the shallow coastal waters of Florida and wildlife officials are trying to coax
them back into deep sea, their normal habitat. At least 10 whales have already
died and the fear is that more will succumb. The reports describe the situation
saying, ‘the challenges are very, very difficult…the whales are not
cooperating…it will be difficult for them to navigate out on their own.’ I have
this image of similar situation within the extended church family. We can see
friends and loved ones struggling in the shallow waters of the world, but
getting them into deeper spiritual waters before the beach themselves is very,
very difficult.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----I can imagine these guys chasing a meal while not realizing their prey has led them into a trap. Or while just hunting around an unfamiliar area in high tide, they found themselves in trouble when it goes out. If they are anything like people, their nerves get frayed and their minds wire to an emotional storm rather than to subtle memories and familiarities and to what they are sensing of their surroundings. That’s the danger of panic, which eventually will turn to despair in unresolved situations.
-----The Lord is about subtle detail as much as spiritual generality. Fear turns attention to what is being feared. If we make that attention intellectual in lead of the emotional and fear Him above all else, then we find ourselves searching and pondering our surroundings for any correspondence to what we know of Him. By basically knowing that God is good in general when a situation is not sorting out firsthand, doing what good you might see needing done in it can sometimes provide the clue which brings to mind an actual fix. But it starts with keeping your fears focused on the Lord instead of the situation and your soul thinking rather than emoting.
-----That takes activity. Some people are more prone to passivity. They subject themselves to being sorted out and mapped by their surroundings rather than actively sorting out and mapping themselves by what they have come to know of the Lord, and thusly dealing with their surroundings. But a break from this active participation comes for us all at some point along the active/passive scale. Even though I will not beach where a lot of folks do, there are other beaches more subtly dangerous which would trap me should I swim too carelessly there.
-----Then, this is not to say activity alone is the remedy. Most Americans are very active because we were born into a very individualistic oriented culture. And I thank God for that. But very actively swimming willy-nilly is highly dangerous in the shallows. We’ve had a good economy. We’ve had a civil community. And we’ve enjoyed relative safety from horrific, natural disasters. We’ve lived in the depths of a good life where fear has not been the engaging mechanism of many lives. In such conditions the active soul can easily sort out and map recklessness for himself.
-----Out of sight, out of mind, we've heard. I think this is the sandbar trapping the many who travel the wide road to destruction, even many calling themselves by the Lord’s name (instead of upon the Lord‘s name.) I remember when America was deeper water and the sermons were more populated by hellfire and brimstone images of the megalodon. We were often reminded by our bigger brothers that monsters live in the depths of prosperity and poverty alike. The whole mood towards right and wrong was just different before littler brothers popularized blaming right for all our wrongs.
-----Consequently, today we live amongst a people mostly convinced that God is dead and the megalodon is extinct. Yet, here and there, bit-in-half whales are beginning to surface. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn these killer whales raced for the shallows to escape being eaten by something worse than are they. So I think it is again time to warn people that the megalodon yet lives, as well does the Lord. Then fearing the latter and wariness of the former are better habits to preach in these shallower waters than is enjoying the willy-nilly swim!
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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