The Source for 2020

I was driving through the Derbyshire Dales recently. The road snaked through the valleys, perhaps not as pronounced as the ones near to where I live in West Yorkshire; nevertheless, you could see the natural beauty. The colours of the hills, fresh from further rainfall, were a mixture of greens and the rich autumnal blend of golds and browns. As I passed Chatsworth House, the deer skitted across the road, a few at a time – the motorists pausing their journeys to allow them to pass.

As my car climbed one hillside, I noted along the side of the road a fast flowing stream coursing down the valley. The complex flow of the water caused the emergence of what is described as ‘white water’. It contained energy, dynamism. Yes gravity as a force is drawing it down the hill, but where was its source?

Later I reflected upon that source. It would be high up on the hills. Often as you track up the hill you may see trickles of water flowing down the bank here and there. The small gravely tracks highlighting the path of the newly emergent river, but its source? And then, perhaps surrounded by a mossy enclave, the smallest trickle of water is seen, bubbling up, fresh and clear: and it starts to flow, a flow which concludes many many miles away, deep and wide and strong.

 “I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly.”

John 10:10b, adapted

What we do not see, are unable to see, is that the water which has emerged has been under high pressure. It has had to bore through rock, pushed up from far below, to eventually break into the light of the day. It has been released.

For 2020, what is our source?

What drives us or are we driven by forces we are willing to accept? Are we like a piece of flotsam, guided by the tides, the ocean currents, the wind; or are we like a yacht, capable of controlling the focus of those tides, currents and wind through the use of a large and billowing sail, desiring to follow a path which takes us to places where we may flourish? The wood, which could be that flotsam but is now of the yacht, has been transformed.

I believe that God is our source, the wind in our sails, who, if we would wish, if we desire, empowers us to where God wants us to be, and do, in 2020. Could we be transformed in 2020 by listening to God and follow in God’s direction, one where we may have abundant life as God intended.