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How to Draw a Picture (Part 10)
(Excerpt from Duma Key by Stephen King)
"Be prepared to see it all. If you want to create--God help you if you do, God help you if you can--don't you dare commit the immorality of stopping on the surface. Go deep and take your fair salvage."
How deep are you willing to go?
Do you find yourself swimming in the shallow end of life? Safer there, no? Less of a risk. It's where most of us seem to congregate isn't it? We choose not to go deep, where the water is murky. Too many unknowns lurking...
"How are you?"
"Fine, thanks." (My life is a mess.)
"Work going well?"
"Can't complain." (There's rumors of layoffs and I fear I'm first on the chopping block.)
"What happened at school today?"
"Nothing much..." (I just don't fit in. I don't have any friends.)
"Is something wrong?"
"Just tired I guess..." (Yes. Everything's wrong. I'm hanging on as best I can, but I need you to throw me a lifeline.)
Too many of us live life on the surface and are afraid to dunk our heads and drink deeply, because those waters are murky. But those waters are really the only thing worth tasting in this life.
That's where we will find Living water.
"For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
Revelation 7:17
No twitter post tomorrow...9/11
16 comments:
I love the swimming and going deep metaphor. (For obvious reasons)
We have a slightly sinister proverb in my country. It is similar to "Still waters run deep" but it says :
Stille waters, diepe grond,
onder draai die duiwel rond
Which is hard to translate properly, but renders closest, and most poetically, as :
Still waters, deepest ground
underneath the devil prowls around
If we're only touching the surface, we'll never know what's brewing down below, and when it might come out.
There is so much freedom in telling our truths.
I love a Sara Groves song (All Right Here) that goes,
"It's caution and curiosity
And it's all the things I never see
Welling up inside of me
Oh, it's all right here
It's what is best, and what is worse
It's how I see the universe
It's in every line and every verse
Oh, it's all right here
Every heart has so much history
It's my favorite place to start
Sit down a while and share your narrative with me
I'm not afraid of who you are
I'm all here, and you're all there
Some of this is unique, and some of it we share
Add it up and start from there
Well, it's all right here"
-------
Isn't it though? it's always ALL right there, between two people, it's a choice to share the truth or not. And we can't reach true relationship the way it's meant without going there...going deep.
Great post.
I'll stop rambling now :)
Some of the most beautiful "creatures" in the ocean are found in the deepest waters due to the fact that no one goes down there to disturb them. We'll never know how beautiful things can be if we don't take a deep breath, plug our nose and dive in! It might be scary at first, we might even panic a bit, but in the end, the beauty just might be worth it all!
Great post - really makes a person think and evaluate where they are in life!
Thanks for this wonderful post! Whatever we need to do, however deep we need to go, is all worth it to find THAT living water!
Ok, so this isn't the football analogy I thought it was going to be. Awesome, nonetheless.
I was once taught by a teacher in class that "I'm fine" is ettiquette, and we aren't supposed to tell how we actually are. I came home and asked my dad about that. He said that in America, that seems to be true, but in his country, you only asked if you actually wanted to know. I suppose it might also have something to do with living in a small village where people sort of knew each other's business anyway...."We lost our grape crop in the storm" would have been common knowledge anyway. And people would have actually helped out by sharing some of their homemade wine with you.
I usually look into a person's eyes before I answer. I can usually tell if they are doing the ettiquette thing and expect the same in return, or if they really want to know.
(I don't need to look into the eyes of my cyber friends. If they didn't really want to know, they'd've ditched me a long time ago.)
SB - Whoa...I love that proverb. So very true. The longer things lay undisturbed the more powerful they become.
Heather - I love Sara Groves. Going to youtube to check out that song. I may have to add it to this post. Perfect. Thank you.
Jess - Once you get past the panic stage, going deep can be very productive I think.
HisFireFly - It is worth it in the end. It's just so hard to take the plunge.
Candy - At the risk of having my man card revoked, I don't think I know enough about football to write an analogy.
Helen - and that's why we love you.
I'm not afraid to go in deep waters- I just have to come up for air periodically.
I heard a pastor preach a phenomenal sermon a while back that has really stuck with me. (If you've heard me tell this, stop me.) He said that God is tired of us playing, "dressed up church." God wants us to show our scars (like Jesus did in the Upper Room), because it's when we show our scars that people get healed and set free...
Great post, Katdish! And great comments, as well!
I love it when you go deep. :) Takes me right there .. to some soul quenching thoughts.
Lots of gear to put on for deep sea diving. Hope I find something good.
This hit me exceptionally hard today...(timing is everything). It reminds me of the verse in 2Corinthians...
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
The problem is we have to take the time and care enough to see if the people in our world are suffering and trying to keep it hidden...Or to share our own pain in hope that others will offer us comfort in our own time of need.
It is important to have those people you can reveal your heart too. Not everyone is a good candidate for this. There's an excellent book named, Safe People, that tells who is safe and how you can be safe. No question though, we have to find these that we can get beyond the surface with.
I completely agree with this. You cannot dip your toe into life and believe you live deeply. And truth, pure truth, is about as deep as we can tread.
Good thoughts!
This post reminds me of a quote my friend has on her FB.
"Go Deep! There's nothing in the shallows................"
I love to go deep - except ...
certain people seem to have way too much advice to give and when I answer "How are you?" with anything other than "Fine." I know I will spend the next 30 minutes hearing how to deal with whatever I was real about. So am I shallow for not wanting to hear their advice?
Kat, You really are deep under all that goofin' off. This was a great post - thank you.
Going deep and living with passion. "Every man dies, but not every man really lives." Braveheart.
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