Worth Pondering

Kevin Rains posted this on his blog recently:

"Gordon Cosby said something a few years back that haunts me. He said that in all his years of service he has never (and he emphasized 'never') seen a group go from community to mission. Rather, he said one should organize around mission and community will follow. I'm paraphrasing but that is the basic idea. This haunts becasue most things I have done over the past 10 years have been attempts to create community that will eventually be on mission together." (to read the rest, go to http://kevinrains.com/.)

That statement may haunt me for awhile, also.

I'm not sure if it's completely true (I really do believe that often D leads to N leads to A) --- yet, then again, there may be something in that statement that is worth pondering.

Floating

Tori learns a little bit of swimming every time she goes swimming with someone other than Rebekah and me. For some reason, she doesn't learn when we are there. This weekend, grandma & grandpa had her in the pool twice a day. And she's learning fast.

One of the hardest swimming lessons for her, and perhaps for many of us, is to learn how to float. It requires surrender . . . and trust that the water will actually support us. I watch her as she tries to be in control of the "floating" and sinks. I see her struggle to let go and trust the water . . . which is when the magic happens. Floating is actually relaxing when we learn how to do it.

I was reminded of the larger realities of spiritual life as I watched her learn to trust the water and float. I saw myself kicking and struggling to be in control when the true magic, the true relaxation comes in trusting. Someday I'll learn how it's done.