How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house;
you give them drink from your river of delights.
(Psalm 36:7-8 NIV)
Our pastor once told the story of riding in a large canoe up a river in a Central American nation to reach the place where he was scheduled to minister on a mission trip. As they traveled up the river, he noticed that the water flowing from a tributary was a dramatically different color than the water in the main river where he was riding.
Curious, he asked the local people about it. They explained that farther up that tributary was a village where the outhouses were built directly above the river, and all the sewage flowed down the waterway.
To make matters worse, the village children were playing in that same water.
From my perspective, the reaction was immediate: Ewww! Gross! I could not imagine why anyone would allow their children to play in water that seemed so obviously disgusting — and even dangerous.
At the risk of sounding arrogant, I found myself wondering: Did they simply not know any better?
But there are plenty of people in this world who play in the muck simply because they do not know any better. They live with evil ideas, evil people, demonic addictions, and so much more – things that do not reflect the Lord Jesus Christ and his love, peace, grace, hope, and joy. The Apostle Paul reminded us that, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13 NIV) But then asked: How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:14-15 NIV)
Those who are playing around in the spiritual muck of this world may have never heard the Good News. How can they hear if no one tells them? Maybe the people letting their sewage go directly into the river had never heard how awful that was for their drinking water and their overall health. How can they know if no one tells them?
Or, to view it from another perspective, what if our half-heartedness leads us into the muck, when what God wants for us is infinite righteousness, peace, and joy? Paul said it this way:
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. (Romans 14:17-18 NIV)
And C.S. Lewis tickles our imagination with these words:
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” – from “The Weight of Glory” by C.S. Lewis”
Holy Spirit,
Give us hearts to seek after your Righteousness, Peace, and Joy and to release totally the muck of this world. Help us to tell others the Good News of Infinite Joy you offer to us, we ask in Jesus’s name, AMEN.
[adapted from March 21, 2024 post]