The Flume of Life!

You know our lives are always a ride – sometimes a climb to the top of the flume of life, the plummet down to the pool or the anticipating of what will transpire after the next bend in the tube. (I am from Florida, we have water parks . . . hahaha, your ride might be a rollercoaster.) This is life . . . unavoidable and surprising. We each ride this journey with our own particular front row seat.  In this season of my ride, I feel I can barely catch my breath before the next ride feature presents itself.

From this perspective, I want to tell you how the enemy of Life attempts to drown us.  Satan makes the chaos feel as if we have no hope, no energy, no ability to perform our lives. He continually makes us feel like we’re drowning by dragging us under by holding our feet with the weight of circumstance. In this there is one goal. He wants us to focus on saving our lives from the drowning.  When we continually focus on saving our lives, we are set up to lose them.  How crafty! My head is under water and my attempts to breathe cause me to drown.

So you might say, “What am I supposed to do, John? I am drowning!”  Well, the answer is quite against our nature. The Word says, if you attempt to save your life, you will lose your life but if you lose your life, you will find your life.

I was struggling today with that heavy weight on my chest.  I felt irritable and going under for the third time when I heard this: “Be still and know that I am God.”  What I surmised from this is that instead of rushing about, I was to sit still and wait for the Life of Christ to rise.  Easier said than done!  But what I have learned of His Life is that 5 minutes of Him is more powerful and effective than 5 hours of me running about.

The enemy’s plan is devised to keep me inept and impotent. As long as I’m focused on the chaos and drowning under the circumstance, I’ll never produce the Life-giving fruit of the Spirit. Satan knows just how to disarm our weapons and make us ineffective.

So here is the solution: allow Him to live my life and enjoy the ride.  Flumes can be scary and so can life, but when I lose the Peace, I can be sure I am fighting to survive and the Devil has the upper hand.  I don’t say this with any condemnation; as I said earlier, I felt like I personally was going under for the third time just day.  But what I am saying is, I choose Jesus’ life and strength to be John Enslow over my raw determination to survive. Though it is scary as hell, it is the only hope for any true life.