Vol. 17 No. 39 | September 28, 2015
One of my favorite walking trails takes me through a parcel that was once woods and farm land, then a golf course, and now green space. (I’ve written other articles about this place.) One of my favorite parts of the trail passes between two ponds. Like other parts of this tract of land that have provided points for reflection and observation since the closure of the golf course the two ponds remind me of life choices we make on a regular basis: we can choose to survive or we can choose to thrive. (I invite you to listen to Casting Crowns “Thrive” as you read.)
As I walk I see the pond on the left first. Although there may be good reasons, even healthy 
reasons for a pond to be covered with algae like this one. I am neither a pond-oologist nor an algae-ologist, but most of the time I have every heard algae being discussed it has been in reference to a pond, pool, or stream and in the context of “how do I kill it or get rid of it?” Never in the context of “Ooooh. Isn’t that lovely!” Other than an occasional confused turtle or wandering heron, I rarely see much life in or near this pond. It is as if the pond is in survival mode. Waiting for something to happen to change the course of it’s existence.
On the other side of the path I see another pond. This one seems to be thriving. Turtles love this pond. They are often seen swimming and sunning on rocks or logs in the pond. 
Birds of all kinds flit around looking for food. Apparently fish enjoy this pond as well because the bank is often populated by the hopeful fisherman. the water is clear and clean. It seems that breeze is almost always blowing across this pond.
Again, I do not know the reason for the different of these two ponds separated by only a short distance (maybe 40-50 feet), and actually connected to some degree by a culvert underneath the road. I do not know the reason, but I see the reality.
So, here is the application. If your life were represented by one of these two ponds, which would it be? Are you just surviving, or are you thriving?
Are you feeling covered up by “stuff”? Do you feel that the very life of you is being choked out of you by unhealthy influences around you, or in you? Do you feel like you are being overrun by people and events that drain the life out of you? When other people are with you do they go away drained and discouraged?
Are you feeling alive? Are you living each day in the knowledge that You are God’s child and that His Spirit is living in and though you? When people are with you do they go away feeling refreshed and hopeful?
Consider these two passages from John’s Gospel.
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? (John 4:9-11, NIV)
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. (John 7:37-39, NIV)
We have a choice in how we live. We have a choice in the what we offer to others. I pray that this week I will choose to in such a way that rivers of living water will flow from within me.
Tom
A Norvell Note © Copyright 2015. Tom Norvell All Rights Reserved.