On H2O

       When I was a young boy, probably about 7 or 8, my Dad took us on vacation to a place called Sebago Lake. It seemed like a wonderful place and I was enjoying the fact that I was with my Dad. I am sure my older brothers have their own memories and not as simplistic as mine. The lake itself was enormous and as I recall you could go out quite far into the water at our location and it remained rather shallow. An occasion arose when I was going to be going for a ride in small boat, I believe it was our old Grumman Sport Canoe. I was to enjoy the paddling around. Unfortunately I enjoyed no such thing.  I was so small, and the lake, close enough to touch, was vast, enormous and scary - and I could not swim. Knowing my Dad I certainly had a life vest but that doesn't hold the favor of logic to an immature 8 year old. My fear was real and intense.

        That memory came bubbling up when I read today's passage from Mark. The comparison of the Apostles "straining at the oars" and my old fears of water did not go unnoticed. The answer came to both the Apostles and myself comes in the form of Jesus.  The answer is not relief from the water. Jesus does not calm by removing the water from the equation.  Jesus calms the water and thereby calming me, them or us.

        When the latency of my homosexuality was on the cusp of being revealed at the age of fifty, I was having some incredibly vivid dreams. Some were horrific and frightening. One recurring theme was that I was in a house surrounded by wildly rising flood waters. I have come to know that the water involved the emotions rising up within me about 'something'. Further, I came to know that what was rising up was my mind trying to come to terms with the fact that I am gay. Faith, prayers, supportive people and therapy allowed me to come out and accept joyfully that which I had suppressed for so many years. I firmly believe that it is God that began and supported the process of me coming out.  Those dreams stopped when I was able to say out loud to myself that "I am gay!".  God calmed the waters again.

           As all life on earth springs from water, so the significance of water is held as a human universal. It can involve cleansing clothes and cleansing souls. Water can produce magnitudes of electrical power, cause horrific floods or devastating tsunamis. Water also supports the very life we live. Without water we would die.

           Water is symbolic of so much of life and of God herself. Water sustains us, God is in our essence. How can we separate the two?   My thoughts on water. Keep treading, keep loving. Drink of the living waters.

Mark 6:45-52

 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray.

 When evening came, the boat was out on the lake, and he was alone on the land. When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the lake. He intended to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’ Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.