The River of Life
Meditation : 11 November 1997

Within my soul stream living waters, coursing through this body which is Christ's abode on earth. At the depths, at the source, at the life spring, of these waters, Christ walks, the river flowing from and through and all about Him, a constant moving eddy.

But these waters don't just flow from Christ, they flow all around and about him ~ just as the waters from a tap pour into a bath, rushing to seek an exit and, finding none, return upon themselves, filling and filling the tub ... until an outlet is created, the plug opened, and the waters begin to drain. But unless we deliberately turn it off, the water source continues to flood our souls, and so the flow of the river begins ~ from the source, into its holding pool, and out to the world.

If the balance is exactly right, the incoming floods are teamed with the outgoing, and the holding pool at the centre is kept fresh and clean and joyous in its bubbling stream. No foul bacteria can exist in fast flowing currents; they require stagnation in order to thrive. Here, the rushing of the waters is too fast, too pure, too fresh, to accommodate them and allow them to grow.

But this is only at my core. The pool fills to form a dam deep within me; what is the quality of this lake as it moves away from its centre towards its banks? Here these waters must carry upon them what is thrown in from outside ~ from the world itself ~ whatever manages to enter through me, the filter.

At the centre of the spring, where they pour forth from Christ, the waters are sweet and clear and good. What I add to them ~ what I allow to filter through into the depths of my being ~ can either sweeten them further, refreshing and pleasuring and exulting my Lord as the stream surges back past and around Him ~ or it can taint them, pollute them, foul them, carrying to Him the diseases of my mind and heart, clogging up the spring, until it flows no more within me.

I must guard the portals of this House of God, this Temple of the Holy Spirit; this Dwelling Place of Christ. I must look to the maintenance of my sluice gates; I must constantly clear my filters; I must keep the channels clean and pure, so that the Love coursing into and through me from the life spring at my centre can be channelled in purity and truth, and can remain pure and true as it exits, flowing out from me to the world, carrying with it only the Beauty of Holiness.

Only then can I honestly lay hold of the claim :

"There's a river of life flowing out through me!
Makes the lame to walk and the blind to see,
Opens prison doors, sets the captives free ~
There's a river of life flowing out through me!
Spring up, O Well, within my soul!
Spring up, O Well, and overflow!
Spring up, O Well, flow out through me!
Spring up, O Well, set others free!"

This background image was made by Pattie of In His Image. When she created it, she had no idea about this page; she found this article "by accident" and was excited by the link between the writing and her thoughts as she had made the image. She let me know, I loved the image, and ... here it is! :-)  Thanks, Pattie!