“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalms 46:10
I was looking over one of my writings from many years ago and I was reminded of a wonderful day in my life. Under the perfect blue sky of Texas, and in the perfect temperature of the morning hours, I took a few hours off and floated down the Guadalupe River. In Gruene, Texas, there is a tradition of people renting rubber inner tubes (toobs as they call it in Texas) and placing them in the river, and allowing the current to gently float them a few miles down from where they first got in the river.
As I laid back on my toob, I thought to myself “I have finally found a sport that I can relate to.” I had quickly mastered my toob and the art of floating I was just drifting along backwards looking at where I had been. I didn’t hear the Rapids, and I didn’t see their rocks, I just laid back listening to the quiet sounds of nature and enjoying the relaxation. The river was a wonderful temperature. It seemed to move only very slightly and I only inched along the shoreline in its current.
Then, without warning, the velocity of my trip increased, the toob was turning and I was going up-and-down over rocks. I struggled to stay up right and to go in the right direction of the fork in the river. Then as soon as the Rapids began, the flow seem to stop, and I was in what appeared to be the doldrums (what ship captains call places in the water without movement), the toob was no longer moving downstream; it was just going ever so slowly in a continuous circle.
I found that after the fast movements I was very impatient to get moving again, and yet when I learned to enjoy the doldrums, I saw things that I had been blind to before. Evidence of God was all around me. A dozen or more giant turtles sunned themselves just a few feet away from my endless circle. On the third turn I saw beautiful birds standing on one leg as if to pose for me.
The flow of life is much like my journey on the river. If you’re only looking back to your past, you cannot see where you are going. When the speed of life increases, we are often shocked and all we can do is hold on for dear life. Then when movements stop again, we quickly become bored and impatient, and we wish that life would speed up again. We can become addicted to speed, but there are more blessings to be found in stillness. In stillness and quiet, we find God and evidence of God everywhere.
After fully enjoying the stillness and feeling refreshed by it, I had to physically paddle using my arms and hands and feet to get back to an area of the river where the current was taking things downstream. When I was in the flow again, I could just lay back and enjoy the trip. After a few hours, I felt like I had been immersed in a microcosm of the great macrocosm. Everything that I experienced on that small river was part of our large lives. If you really want to live a large life, you need a concept of a larger God. No matter where you are on your river of life, God is there and ready and willing to help. When you ask for God’s help, you stop the struggles. Just lie back, and relax, and enjoy the flow.
Most of us don’t remember what we did on a particular day last year, let alone many years ago, but we remember the magic moments, and many of those moments are times of spiritual experience, where we allow the quietness of God surround us.
That day, I let go and I let God take over and how relaxing it was. I realized today you may not be floating down the river, but you can have the same experience by simply letting go of some of the things that cause you great tension. Much of our tension comes from trying to manage and control our lives and the others in our lives. I could not control the river; I just flowed with it.
If our tensions are coming from relationships with coworkers and family, imagine today that you are all together toobing down the river. Let go and let God.
To “let go” does not mean to stop caring; it means I can’t do it for someone else.
To “let go” is not to cut myself off; it’s the realization that I can’t control another.
To “let go” is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural consequences.
To “let go” is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To “let go” is not to try to change or blame another; it’s to make the most of myself.
To “let go” is not to care for, but to care about.
To “let go” is not to fix, but to be supportive.
To “let go” is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.
To “let go” is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to effect their destinies.
To “let go” is not to be protective; it’s to permit another to face reality.
To “let go” is not to deny, but to accept.
To “let go” is not to nag, scold, or argue, but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To “let go” is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.
To “let go” is not to criticize and regulate anybody, but to try to become what I dream I can be.
To “let go” is not to regret the past, but to grow and live for the future.
To “let go” is to fear less, and love more.
POSITIVE DAILY PRAYER:
Dear God, I come to You for strength – strength of body, strength of mind and strength of soul.
I feel the infilling of Your Spirit.
I feel the assurance of Your upholding presence.
Thank You, God, for strength.
Dear God, I come to You for wisdom – wisdom to know what I should do, wisdom to choose the course that means growth and understanding.
Thank You, God, for wisdom.
Dear God, I come to You for courage – courage to face every experience, courage to stand strong and firm in the midst of situations that require much of me.
Thank You, God, for courage.
Dear God, I come to You for serenity – serenity of heart and spirit.
Bless me with Your untroubled Spirit of peace.
I feel Your calming touch upon my heart, I feel Your love enfolding me.
Thank You, God, for serenity.
In Jesus Christ’s name, Amen
POSITIVE DAILY AFFIRMATION: Just for today I stop managing and controlling, and I am in the flow of life.
POSITIVE DAILY QUOTE: “Each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity.”
Marie Curie
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