Hello and welcome on blog day 1.
A vision of standing at the site where two great rivers meet was somewhere down my bucket list. I had crossed both the mighty Mississippi and the wide Missouri (of ♫Shenandoah♫ fame) many times in my life. In my imagination, the two would come together in a roaring, rushing, foaming spray of wondrous power.
When we notice someone who is struggling and consider reaching out to bless in some way, we may turn back because of visions of a roaring, rushing, foaming spray of difficulties and chaos.
Deep down, we worry about facing raging waterfalls of needs we don’t understand. We fear making an awkward remark and causing our someone to dissolve in a rush of tears. We have nightmares of a room full of clerks or family members or security guards looming over us to glare at our inadequacy. We suspect that our efforts will need to be Herculean — gigantic and impossible and exhausting. We may even anticipate a clash of personalities, being unable to control an explosive meeting, resulting in little resembling a blessing.
Our imaginations can get in the way, convincing us that it will be difficult to bless our someone. Visions of mighty wonders can delay us.
But what if nothing is as we expected?
The confluence of the two longest rivers in North America turned out to be a mile-wide, serene merging into one larger river. If you focus your binoculars, you can watch the waters meet and gradually unite — visible since one river is muddier than the other.
Of course, moving water is not completely still, and I expect some days are busy with barge traffic or overflowing with spring floods. But at the end of my journey, at the top of the 180 foot Confluence Tower, I found this new panorama was more familiar than unique — water, trees, birds, sky — without even the splash of a waterfall to announce the event. It was significant to me to be there, but the scene very much resembled all the many river views I am already familiar with.
In the same way, finally making the move to reach out to your someone may land you in familiar territory after all.
Walking alongside someone’s muddy life is a blessing, and your lives may join in ways that are simple and beautiful.
Blog #1, Comments: Are you holding back from blessing someone based on nagging, unrealistic fears? Or, do you have an encouraging story of an unexpectedly calm outcome?
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