Unpredictable Currents

Today, I am grateful to be alive and whole, and to have the capacity to love, live, and work to be in harmony with the Almighty Creator. A couple days ago, floating the river with friends and family, our 10 year old son somehow ended up hanging off the front edge of his tube in the river. The area where we were, the depth was about 3 feet, and the current fast enough it was difficult for a man to stand without being swept off his feet. Our son, Dane, not able to climb back into the tube, was hanging by his fingertips, and not realizing the danger, was giggling hysterically. My Melissa caught my attention and I immediately jumped off my tube and retrieved Dane to the safety of his tube, he still not recognizing the imminent danger he had encountered.

All being safely resolved, it soon became clear that to catch up to my tube, which was tied with the other 20 or so flotation devices in our happy group, I needed to get moving. After some hustle and battle with the current, I managed to come alongside my tube. lining it up, I sat down, only to find the fickle current bucked my tube to one side, leaving me doing an instantaneous reverse underwater somersault while being swept along the rocky riverbed. Instinctively--by the Grace of The Almighty--I managed to throw my arms above my head in an oh-crap-this-is-gonna-hurt! fashion, and bashed fist, forearm, and elbow on the slick river rocks. Coming upright, I somehow managed to land on my feet, and catching my breath realized someone was yelling "GLASSES." My first thought was, "I'm fine, I can see fine." After a couple breaths and catching my balance, it occurred to me I indeed could not see "fine." At that moment shortsighted vision seemed entirely secondary to the realization that I came near to bashing my skull on the bottom of the Madison River, yet somehow came away unscathed.

Sometimes the power and grace of The Almighty Creator overwhelms like current of the river, washing out banks, changing the course and channel of the future, and sweeping us off our feet just when we think we have everything lined up just right. For me, those are usually the times when I think I have everything under control. God, knowing my deepest desire to honor Him in all my doings, gently--or sometimes not so gently--reminds me of the certain fact that He--the Almighty Creator of The Universe, The Benevolent Benefactor of all good things--is alone in control. He reminds me that my primary and most imminent goal is alignment with His natural law, rather than attempting to gain some facade of control. He gently reminds me that my primary function is to live, act, work, and play with a heart filled with gratitude, and a mind directed to honoring His Name by thinking on things that are good, honorable, kind, lovely, and by a continual and sincere outreaching of kindness--as specified in Holy Scripture.

So today, I am grateful to be alive, no matter what is in store. My job every day is to act in faith and purpose, as efficiently as possible, acting with a grateful heart in every opportunity and endeavor to advance and to assist others in also advancing toward that grateful mind and heart that allows one to become aware of and aligned with that Magnificent Creator Who made us carefully and lovingly with His own hands, and desires for each of us to experience the full magnificence for which we were created. It is entirely up to each individual to become so rightly aligned that the purpose and process of the Almighty becomes clear, and nothing aligns the heart and mind with God more efficiently than active gratitude.

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