Have you ever been to a water park? They are fantastic! Looking back on my life, I realized that I have actually been to a lot of them in my life time, and every one of them uniquely different. I have been to ones at Kings Dominion, Myrtle Beach, and most recently Dollywood! (disclaimer: Dollywood in itself is a fun place to visit and the water park is on point........working at the park is a different story. Worst job ever.)
I have always enjoyed water and I love massive slides and wave pools and lets be honest, Lazy Rivers are the greatest invention since the water gun. The one section of water parks that I regularly overlook is the big massive jungle gym looking structures that have water spraying in every little corner and crevice possible. Water is being poured into bucket after bucket until finally the top one (which is massive by the way) is completely full and poured a metric ass ton of water on all the willing bystanders. These massive aquatic playgrounds are normally filled with small children running around, sucking every second out of their short lived experience.
I know that this is a pretty random topic to bring up, so I'll tell you what brought me to think about it. For the past couple of weeks The Father has really been laying the concept of "real community" on my heart. So much so that sermons at church and bible studies have been on that topic either directly or indirectly for some time now. During this past bible study we had a discussion about Philippians 1 and how it talks about living in one spirit. This spirit is one of intimacy and deep rooted friendship among the body; a oneness among the community for the same purpose, pushing and penetrating each others lives for the gospel.
Our discussion progressed into what that looks like or should look like in our own lives and we started talking about being spiritually poured into, whether that is our individual walks with Christ or the overflow of that, or splashed onto our friends, our community. The more we talked the more I had a vision of a bunch of childlike figures playing in a water park; everyone is completely soaked and completely poured into. I like the imagine the big bucket being The Father pouring His Love on us, and the smaller buckets are each one of us pouring into each other because of the overflow of Christ in us. No one is left out. Everyone is splashing around and pure JOY is the result. If you think about it....there is really no sadness at a water park; just joy, laughter, play, friendship, and happiness.
May our communities be like water parks. May we be drenched by the overflow of The Spirit, and may we fill each other up with encouragement, love, and deep rooted friendships.
