Waves in an Ocean
From Tuesdays With Morrie By Mitch Albom
A little wave was bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He’s enjoying the wind and the fresh air — until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore. “My God, this is terrible,” the wave says. “Look what’s going to happen to me!”
Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him, “Why do you look so sad?” The first wave says, “You don’t understand! We’re all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn’t this terrible?” The second wave says, “No, YOU don’t understand. You’re not a wave, you’re but part of the ocean.” Waves in An Ocean … Written by Mitch Albom
Many people have asked me … What happened to Rose Creek Village? I am just now beginning to understand the answer. Here is what I’ve come to thus far.
The above story illustrates a kind of destructive mindset in God’s people. Left unchecked it can be very misleading and even harmful to the Kingdom of God. What do I mean? Well; sometimes we who are part of the Kingdom of God can begin to take on an “independent identity” other than just being but a part of the Kingdom of God.
Like the little wave who forgot his true identity of being part of a vast ocean and decided that he would now be defined by the energy passing through him, so we too forget who we are when the Spirit passes through us and begins to accomplish some vibrant ministry by us. We forget that our identity is being a part of Christ and not by doing that “something special” for Him.
I have lived my entire adult life working to see the realization of the corporate life of Jesus Christ as it was first seen in the book of Acts. The road has been costly and arduous but unbelievably rewarding. I believe we have come to understand, in a very small measure, what the abundant life Christ talked about… actually consist of. That Life if lived corporately and with much love for others, can yield 100 times whatever you left behind. See (Mark 10:29–30).
But that is not the topic of this post.
After living corporately for over 20 years and watching the incredible changes in people and their children’s lives, I am beginning to see something new emerge in what we will be doing in the future.
I had mistakenly thought that we would spread out and replicate the Life we have been living these past 20 years, throughout the world. But, alas, that will probably be just a small part of what we do. I rather think we will be helping other people accomplish their ministries.
Never the less I had become so convinced that duplicating our way of life would be our life’s work; I think I took on that identity. It became me. Slowly, like the little wave, my identity became what the Spirit was doing with us ….not who He is in us.
Again, like the little wave, these revelations don’t come until you see your end. And they usually have to come from “other little waves” wondering why you look so grim. Why are they always asking me why am I looking so sad? Don’t they see the shoreline ahead?
They have to remind you that you and your ministry’s demise are but the release of God’s will for someone else’s life and ministry to grow. Even so it can be very frightening. But the terror of your end is dwarfed by the knowledge of who you really are part of.
And; don’t be too afraid of letting go… there is a lot more Energy that made that little wave ….headed our way. I just hope we can let it pass through us and not define us.
David Taylor
