River, Lake or Mud Puddle

Ever had a thought that rolled around in the cranium and try as you might you just could seem to catch hold of it and flesh it out?  You know the one, it flits in and out over and over for days, but you can't seem to catch it and chew on it.  Well, I have one of those and I am attempting to catch it and digest it so that I can share it with others.  This weekend has been so busy, like most days in the holiday season and I haven't had time to slow down and really 'cogitate', but Sunday evening my pastor made a statement about the church model either being a lake model or a river model.  His thought being that lakes are bodies of water that pretty much sit around and go nowhere; whereas, rivers are moving bodies of water that have a destination.  As he was speaking I thought back to my college classes on geography and geology.  I loved those classes in regard to their information about the earth structure and the forces of nature for change.  When we studied rivers the course work ranged from the origination of a river, to the destination of the river and the evidence the river left behind over the course of time.  Changes!  Mountain streams flowing down the mountain to become rivers gouging out valleys and gorges, always leaving evidence of their passing.  In some places they left wide pleasant valleys, in some places dead river beds as the river changed course, in some places the desolation of flooding, but always evidence of change.   I know that pastors message was related to the fact that someone who enters a church should leave at a different place in life as you cannot go into a river and come out again exactly where you went in because the current will carry you down river to another place.  I however, believe that in addition to taking individuals to a new place in life the church should leave behind evidence of change or impact on the community as a whole.  If the church should be built on the model of the river, then we need to leave evidence of change on the community we are flowing through.  Touch the lives of those outside the four wall of the church building and cause change in the neighborhoods of the city.   God has the power to impact the city, the state, the nation if we as the body of Christ take the leaders of our city, our state, and our nation before the throne of God in prayer.  Rivers cause change unless they are dammed up and become lakes; likewise, God causes change when we open the doors of our church and take Him out into the streets, the highways and the byways.  

There, I think I caught it finally and got it on 'paper'.  I want to be like the river,  I want to leave behind evidence of my passing through, otherwise I'm just a puddle that messes up shoes and eventually dries up.