I came across the pool unexpectedly, as I followed the course of the river.
Ripples radiated across the surface, gently unsettling its placid reflection.
Water entered the pool via the swift current of the mill race, and here the agitation was more concentrated, more insistent.
But this was calm compared with the nearby weir, over which the river poured with disruptive force.
Yet at the edges of the pool, away from any disturbing flow, the water languished, lethargic and stagnant; vibrant life choked and suffocated.
Companion Spirit, the metaphor is uncomfortably obvious. I think of all the times when I have known Your life in me surging, deepening, expanding. These have most often been times of disturbance.
Sometimes, just a gentle unsettledness;
Sometimes a persistent agitation;
Sometimes a forceful disruption.
Rarely has such fruitful growth come through extended periods of unruffled and unchallenged tranquillity. Helper of my heart, must it always be so?
I sense your whisper: “Shalom is a gift most richly experienced within periods of outward turmoil. In this contested realm, ‘peace that passes all understanding’ will seldom mean the absence of testing times. I love to bless you with precious rest. But precisely because of my tenacious love for you I will work most vigorously through moments of turbulence in your life. For this prepares you for a still higher calling.”
Humble King, I know you do not insist or coerce. You invite my willing participation in this process. But I can choose to ignore, to resist or to simply resent such times. To waste them.
If I do so You will not love me any less. But I will be less.
Spirit of Jesus, strengthen me to embrace the ‘disruptions’ that I encounter – whatever their source. Whether they be merely inconvenient, distinctly uncomfortable or acutely painful, enable me to see them as opportunities under Your careful hand. Occasions when You can form me, shape me, train me, prepare me.
So Master, in you fierce kindness, disturb me.
