Sitting by the dock of the bay

Good morning,
I pray the day is finding you well.

I'm just sitting on the dock of the bay.

I'd be watching the tide role away, except I am on a lake and a lake does not have a tide.

I have been sitting here a while now. The birds fly overhead, the wind rustles the leaves of the trees, waves lap against the shore.

I was sitting here listening for God.

It was a quiet conversation.

I wasn't saying much, He wasn't saying much. You know you are with a friend when you can sit together in silence and it isn't weird. You are just enjoying each other's company without feeling the need to fill the void with noise.

The sun was shining, the day was warm. After a while a boat went by. I watched as it first came into view, then pass by, eventually it was gone. The boat was out in the lake a ways, it did not make much noise. After it went by the wake that it made started coming to shore. The familiar slosh, slosh, slosh could be heard as the little waves broke against the beach.

That was when God broke the silence. He asked the question,"what have you learned from the boat passing by?"

This caused me to ponder for a while.

A friend once said this about me, "It might take Roger a while to come up to speed, but once he gets there he doesn't stay there very long."

I turned to God and said, "Can you throw me a bone?"

This is what He said:

We are all like boats traveling along a lake. We displace things along the way, the same way a boat displaces the water it goes through.

We cause a wake.

The wake itself is neither good or bad, it is just a wake. Our intentions and our presence define the outcome of the wake. We have all seen what bad intentions cause. They leave a wake of destruction. Good intentions, poorly thought out can leave the same wake as a bad intentions wake.
Leaving or not leaving a wake is not the question. We all leave wakes. The question is, "How do we leave a wake that positively impacts others?"

I just looked at God. I knew that if I gave Him the pat answer, "Just look to Jesus." He would say, "Ok, what does that mean? Jesus left a positive wake but look at the wake that some of His followers left, not so positive."

I said, "I guess I don't know."

God said, "You know that you are called to come into right relationship with people. You know that I told you to love you neighbor, even your enemies. You are to help people, not just when it is convenient for you, but all the time. Worry less about principles and more about presence. Your job is to show people a little bit of Me. I will take care of the rest."

My prayer today is;

Lord, have your way with me. Break my heart for the things that break yours. Take away any pride or ambition that inhibits me from doing the work You have called me to do. Make me Your hands and feet. I don't want to be splashing aimlessly, creating waves. Let the wake that I leave behind bring You glory. Amen

Blessings,