This morning on an outing in Bangkok, I stumbled upon a store in the mall offering fishy pedicures. The answer is yes – I did allow flesh eating sucker fish to attach themselves to my feet and leech off dead skin for a full fifteen minutes.
As I reflected on this last month I realized that I had gotten a vision for the American church last month. I’ll call it the “spiritual water wheel.” I had the opportunity to put my “water wheel” idea into practice for Q Squad’s last debrief in Estonia. As a squad leader I had the incredible honor and privilege to sit down with each team and help them reflect on their time as a team together. Over and over again I saw the fruit of what can happen when people consistently choose God.
I was also able to sit down for one-on-one time with almost half of the squad. During these one-on-ones I poured out onto my squad-mates. The small moments in-between my one-on-ones and debriefs I would pray and give and receive encouragement from our leadership team. I realized that I was functioning like a spiritual water wheel – I was filling up and pouring out God’s blessing fluidly and driving the kingdom forward. I realized then that I had gotten an important element of the kingdom wrong before the world race – I was spiritually fat.
During my college years I consistently went to church, I went to a Bible study, I went to a campus ministry… I consumed all of these things. To use the water wheel analogy, I allowed the things of God to flow into my canals, but I did not let them flow out, therefore I was inoperable. My wheel stayed stagnant and pointless. In consumer driven America it is pretty easy and normal to simply consume for most of life. There isn’t much that I need to make or do to be well fed. I used to spiritually feed during my appointed spiritual meal times, but I never fed others. What a missed opportunity…
I have experienced so much joy and life as my spiritual water wheel has begun moving fluidly as it is supposed to. It boggles my mind that the Lord should even consider me, but wow, He wants to use ME as His water wheel? What a privilege.
How does this relate to the American church you might ask? Well, I believe that many of my brothers and sisters in Christ back in the States exhibit behavior much like I did in college, consuming, but not pouring out. There’s grace if that is you! But let me tell you, Christianity makes so much more sense when you are a functioning water wheel.
