Vigorous Attention

   Yesterday after church, we went up to a place on our island, Cannon's Point, where the Land Trust is establishing a conservation area.  It is a beautiful 600 acre piece of property that will be excluded from any development and kept open for people to enjoy.

   As is true for a lot of spots on the island, there is a creek running down the east side of the property. Where I come from, a creek is thought of as a moving body of water eventually flowing into a larger stream, making a river that continues to flow from a higher elevation to a lower until reaching its terminus somewhere "down there".

   In the marshes that surround the area where we live, creeks are "tidal creeks". That is they flow inward (away from the ocean) as the tide comes in, and outward  (back toward the ocean) as the tide recedes.

   As I stood on the bank and watched the outward flow of water, I saw various grasses and reeds, caught in the current and moving toward the mouth of the creek. I also remembered a time just a few days ago that I stood on a dock over another tidal creek on the west side of the island and watched stuff moving in toward the land and away from the ocean. Depending on the situation with the tides, the same piece of wood, or reed, or grass, could be moving in either direction as it passed by my point of reference.

Sunset on Dunbar Creek

St. Simons Island

   I thought of these creeks when I read the verse in Matthew 7 for today:

“Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention."

   It is so easy to just flow with the current, whichever way it is headed. In fact, like the tidal current, it can be going east at one time and then 6 hours later be moving in the opposite direction.

   I want to be more intentional than that.

   The "creek illustration" may not be a good one. There is a time to be resting and moving with the current of God's direction and prodding, but I want my life to be in constant movement toward Him.

   Even if I have to paddle against the incoming tide that threatens to sweep my back to the land I came from.

   Vigorous Attention