Flow.

We like movement. The going-forward type movement is most preferred. We enjoy being on the go, making a run for it, and running the race. We love positive progress. We even attach very negative terms to non-movement: Terms like stagnant, stalled, idle or stuck. None of us desire a stagnant life, a stalled car, an idle friendship, or being stuck at work.

I wonder why. Does the breakneck pace of our lives reveal more about what’s going on, on the inside than the outside? Are we running like crazy people from one appointment to another because on the inside we feel stagnant or stuck and movement, any kind of movement, is better than all of our stuck-ness? Are our souls so devoid of life that we have to run in circles like maniacs flailing our arms just to deaden the dullness of our stagnant inner life? Sadly, today it is counter-cultural to believe that stillness has any benefit, or being idle on purpose is profitable to our core. Instead being super busy is awarded on so many levels, even in our Christ following communities. It’s almost as if we decided somewhere along the line that we must receive merit badges in heaven for how busy we’ve been for “God.” I know someone who attends six different Bible studies a week! SIX! (If you see nothing wrong with this, just close this page and go back to that crazy arm-flailing thing that you were doing)

I am not certain if this is the first time in Christian history that this attitude has been so prevalent, but today, in America, it is at pandemic proportions. The ancients of the faith would be appalled, not at how much we are trying to do in the name of Jesus, but that we are serving water from an empty well and one day soon, someone will point out that there is no water in the glass of water we just handed them.

To Flow-over we must slow down. NOW! Lord help us!