The Flow
Are you living in the flow? We all have times when we’re not. We may be active, but we’re not in sync. A few years ago, “flow” was my word for the year. It was prompted by John 7:38 where Jesus said, “Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.”
The King James Bible phrases it this way: “Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.” I appreciate how John Ortberg summarized this.
The belly is the deepest place inside you - the place where you get anxious or afraid, where you feel hollow or empty when you are disappointed. The Greek word is koilia, and we speak of getting colitis when rivers of stress run in our belly. Scientists say we have a reptile brain - “a brain in the gut” - that is, neurons in the digestive system that produce feelings of well-being or threat deeper than we can put into words. It is in that very deepest place Jesus said that he will produce vitality.
People talk about experiencing both belly laughs or a kick in the gut. We’ve all experienced both, I certainly have, sometimes within mere days. We just returned from an amazing adventure-filled week in Costa Rica with our son and his family. It couldn’t have been better! Then, because I always need something to look forward to, two days later, I had a planned appendectomy. While everything came out okay, my belly full of fun activities turned into a belly full of agony.
Our physician son said that my planned appendectomy was no big deal. I told him that’s because it wasn’t on him! As for me, my appendix and I have been happily attached for 76 years. Now, several days post-surgery, I have had no “separation anxiety,” but I do have many “separation limitations” of a significant sort. You don’t want to know; I’ll just say I found something to rival kidney stones. I’m sure you can agree that having a body can be humbling!
Life is full of sudden twists and turns, triumphs and traumas. We can quickly move from hilarity to misery. We all get a turn with both, but the Lord is with us through them all. As for me, I’m slowly getting back “in the flow” of things after my surgery. Very slowly. Linda has long joked that she runs an assisted living center with one challenging resident! I’ve certainly brought her some extra challenges of late, and all the time she has excelled with thoughtful assistance. Even though we’ve had our struggles with this, we’re in sync.
While many things are swirling for me and for you, we all especially need to stay in sync with the Lover of our soul. I like how George MacDonald put it, “Certainly work is not always required of a man. There is such a thing as sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected.”
“Sacred idleness” is living in the awareness that the divine moment is the present moment. We have never seen or experienced this particular moment before, and we never will again. May you join me in living and relaxing in the sovereignty of God. He is here and now, or He is nowhere to be found.
Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from him. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.”
Let’s go with the flow!
