26
Apr

It’s All About the Splash…

Water Punch

 

When I was a teen, I was fortunate to live in a condo complex. It had a rather nice pool where most of the complex’s teens hung out during our summer vacations. Every once in a while, we would collectively get a penchant to do cannonballs off the diving board until we could do them no longer (either that or the pool closed for the day). I was deceptively good at them, despite my small, slim profile, knowing that angle, speed and determination could yield a respectable splash. Our series of perfectly tanned, perfectly attractive lifeguards would warily eye the sizable guys preparing to unleash whale-sized splashes and I would sneak ahead of them and generally shock the distracted guard with a decent amount of chlorine-blue water. I have to say this little sneakiness delighted me, but probably irritated the stuffing out of our heated lifeguards….but, they needed cooling off (at least that was my excuse)!

That is often how I view the joy that comes from being a blessed Christian. If we are fully blessed by God, our joy should spill over, maybe even SPLASH over, into the lives of the people around us. It should come naturally, almost like breathing. If it isn’t, most likely something is amiss that needs addressing: grief, fear, fatigue, a really big “ouch”, anger, frustration or confusion.

Whatever it is, it boils down to one simple question: Do we recognize that God is there with us to direct us, heal us, encourage us, strengthen us and guide us back to that splashy kind of joy?  And then…we have to live in that trust and get on “the diving board” and take one huge running leap at God-directed, God-infused abandon and let that splash onto other people. Is that always easy at first? Nope. It takes a lot of practice, and sometimes we fail at the big splash. But, even practicing can be fun when done with those who enjoy jumping off the diving board with us.

So, as we go about our days, may we “jolt” others into knowing that God is all around us.  May we delight in when these others notice the “splash.”  Don’t forget your beach towel. Maybe bring two…for your favorite “life-guard”. 🙂

Tomorrow’s Post: West is eastward…

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 26th, 2013 at 6:50 am and is filed under God stuff, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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