Pastoral Ponderings—Knee-boarding
Even for continuing education events, you’ve got to have a little fun! So, one morning last week before the continuing ed part got started, Karol and I had the opportunity to do some knee-boarding at the top of the Chesapeake Bay where our training was. Though it took a little while to recover from both inhaling part of the bay and straining muscles I don’t use so much, it was a lot of fun. It was a good thing we didn’t have a better camera with us, else Karol would likely have had action shots of me taking a face dive off the board that she would be only too eager to show off!
If you’ve ever (successfully) gotten up on the water being pulled behind a boat, you know it’s something of a balancing act—keeping a balance between the energy of the pull, the pressures of keeping the board under you, and keeping the nose up. Have you ever found out what happens when you don’t keep the nose up when you’re being dragged behind a boat? It’s not pretty.
You’ve probably noticed that life, too, and each of our spiritual journeys, are full of competing pressures. What pulls you through? You’ve probably found out the hard way, too, what happens when you’re being dragged through life’s pressures and aren’t able to keep your head up—not pretty!
Not only is God eager to keep pulling us into His embrace, the Bible is full of clues and insights into how we can keep our nose up through all of life’s pressures—AND how to get back up when we get dragged into an ugly face plant that threatens to drown us! “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” we pray every week, a reminder straight from the Bible that God is in the business of new beginnings! What “keep you head up” passages come to mind for you? I’ve got too many coming to mind!
Staying connected to the One who keeps on pulling us through—Pastor Jim