Jesus, Wine, and a Pool Float

"We are meant to enjoy life."

I’M TIRED OF HAVING opportunities to fear. I said this the other day. I mean, I get the whole “while I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me” promise, and it’s awesome. But I’m kinda tired of wondering, Where is the endless beach and gently lapping waves? Focus. Focus. It’s all about focus. Keep your eyes on Jesus. That’s the truth of the Scripture and what we’re supposed to do, and I love Him. But just once, I want a pool float and hours of nuthin. There’s a time for battle, a time for victory, and a time for eating cookies. It’s in the Scripture somewhere just go with me … Surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life. There it is! Anywho …

Sometimes, one foot in front of the other is difficult. When the trouble is long and your patient endurance is extended to the horizon, there comes a moment when you need Koolaid and a lawn chair. Or the front porch will work. I sit there most mornings watching the sunrise and reading psalms, and God meets me, His presence surrounding me for yet another day. Truth is, I know the pool float is not apropos most days. Work and family and the dog insert themselves. Let the dog in. Let the dog out. Instead, it is that the peace of God and the God of peace are with me in the chaos. That while the atmosphere swirls around me with news and errands and a zillion other things, I know, by holding hands with God in me, that I can handle it all, and there WILL COME a moment of nothingness.

Jesus was at a wedding with His mother, His only plan to enjoy the wedding, when they ran out of wine. No pressure there, Big-J. It’s only Mom wanting you to create wine. And of course, He did, and of course, it was the best of the night. But point is, He had plenty of pressures in His last three years, especially from hateful people, yet kept His peace. In fact, He gave it to us. I like the Knox translation of John 14:17 (especially since it uses the word “bequest”). “Peace is my bequest to you, and the peace which I will give you is mine to give; I do not give peace as the world gives it. Do not let your heart be distressed, or play the coward.” Jesus’ joy is also ours. Hebrews 12:2 says, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 4 talks about entering into God’s rest, and it is rest that we seek, not simply having our mind, our thoughts, peaceful, but it affecting our well-being.

In this place of true shalom, well-being, we are the pool noodle, floating along beneath a summer sun, though we may actually be doing a lot of work. When God becomes huge, fear and stress and anxiety shrink in size, and though we can’t simply sit and soak up nuthin, we have all we need to do successfully what God and life has given us to do, and we do it well and are, in the end, rested. We are meant to enjoy life. 1 Timothy 6:17 says we can trust “in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy,” and it’s that enjoyment I’m after lately, to not be harassed by the enemy at every turn. I don’t want to live in ignorance but to lie down and, as the Knox translation says, “enjoy untroubled sleep (Proverbs 3:24).”

To be the pool float, to hear the ocean waves, so full of joy that living here is just like heaven. Many songs have been written to that effect, with supposed reasons for it, but the only way it is possible is to be in union with Christ, with Jesus, our loving Father, and the Holy Spirit. Which makes it a sure thing.

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

“Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. (19) And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (20) And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: (21) That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.” (Deuteronomy 11:18-21)

Photo by Abik Peravan on Unsplash


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com