After sunrise service today, the following flowed from my soul …

Life flows, not unlike a river, or the wind. Rivers have disturbances in their flow, thereby creating eddies, falls, lakes and rapids. Wind, similarly, has its way of moving past obstacles. Life has all these, and more.

Remember when, as a kid, you put your hand outside the car window, subjecting it to the force of “the wind”? Who has not thrown a stick in moving water to watch its path? At times, life can feel like a hand in the wind, or a stick in a current.

An airplane must maintain an appropriate attitude to the forces of direction and wind in order to stay on track and not fall out of the sky. In order to remain upright, a canoe must maintain appropriate attitude to the current, in which its submerged parts are floating, as well as to the wind in which its upper parts are exposed. Both of these feats are facilitated by, indeed are dependent on, propulsion. In recap, successful navigation is dependent, first and foremost, on propulsion, and secondarily on proper attitude. Perhaps more simply put, propulsion and attitude are tools, whose usage must be learned and honed in order to maintain a proper course.

Life, my friends, is analogous to both of these, a flying airplane and a floating canoe.

What is providing propulsion in our lives? Are we subject to forces beyond our control, including forces put upon us by our fellow human beings? Or, might we identify within ourselves a driving force which may be harnessed, and to which a proper attitude might be applied? This is the case I mean to make.

Over the years, I’ve learned what drives me is companionship. For me to know where I am, and where I am going, I must have context. In Christ, I am never alone, or without context. Though I may at times proffer myself as “Christ-like”, especially amongst sinners with whom I so identify, I am not Christ and am very much human. As a human I am malleable, ever changing, am buffeted by forces beyond my control, and must be ever vigilant in maintaining proper attitude. On the occasion that I lose context, lose sight of Christ, it is important that I am surrounded by other humans who also maintain a proper attitude towards God, for it is they who might help orient me within external forces pushing me off-course, and help readjust my attitude. (“When we go searching for Jesus, do we look for Him in the tomb – or among the living?”) Without other living beings, I would be subject to prevailing forces and perhaps stay off course so long as to be lost forever. Best that I might never lose sight of Christ, but perfect steerage through this life is possible only by Him.

Each of us maintains a unique worldly context. For when God designs, or molds, a human life, using materials taken from both mother and father, he breaks each mold. In this I cherish my relationship with Christ, which is as unique as are we all. So by, I am not driven to church, synagogue, mosque or temple, but rather to a personal shrine in which I commune with Him.

Today, through Christ, my father is risen! He walks amongst us and his countenance reflects to me in the faces of those who gather with me today. In This Way, also with me are Betty, Granddaddy and Grandmother, Chalk and Sally, Granny and 2Daddy, Dube, Uncle Pete, and Douglas.

In THIS, I find peace, and am happy. My attitude, to the ebbs and flows of life, is so adjusted.

“Christ is risen!” “What a friend I have in Jesus!” “Praise God, from Whom all blessing flow!”

Love

Wint