Living in the Flow

When I was a boy I could hardly wait for the fair to come to town. I loved the noise and excitement of the fairground. I was particularly drawn to the helter skelter. We climbed up inside the candy-striped tower and once at the top we launched ourselves onto the slide and spiralled down the outside, whooping with glee. More modern versions are found in children's play parks and our grandchildren make a beeline for them. Even the toddlers seem fearless as they woosh down the polished stainless steel slide.

For reasons I've yet to discover they also delight in trying to go up the slide the wrong way. Usually they give up halfway as their feet slip or someone else comes hurtling down. It's just the same in the shopping malls, where, if we didn't stop them, they would try to climb up the down escalator. We try to explain that apart from being dangerous it's very exhausting and much better to use the correct one. Of course we adults would never do anything like that, or would we?

I had a full programme arranged for the other day. Things I had been meaning to do for quite a while. The problem was other things kept getting in the way. Several phone calls delayed me and then I kept bumping into people who wanted to talk. Even as I was speaking, my mind was on my own agenda and I realised I was getting uptight. Only then did it dawn on me that God had arranged things differently and I was resisting His timetable. These 'things' that were getting in the way, were relationships and people that were far more important than my own plan.

When we become Christians we stop going against the flow of God's love and provision and hand over control to the Holy Spirit. To yield to God and live in the flow of God's provision can be effortless, far more effective and even stimulating. To go against the flow causes stress and fatigue and frustrates God's purpose in our lives.

"From now on, then, you must live the rest of your earthly lives controlled by God's will -" 1 Peter 4:2 Good News Bible