Today those persons in our Holston Conference preparing to be recognized as Associate Members, those being commissioned as Provisional Elders (this is me 😁), and those being ordained as Elders in Full-Connection (prayers this is me in 3 more years), met today in Alcoa for "A Day With the Bishop". It was a time of learning, recognition, celebration, and getting to know others in our "class" as we embarq on the next phase in our ministerial journey.
And since I had a 2-hour drive both ways, I got to listen to a couple of my favorite podcasts, and of course listen to some of my favorite music. And today was a Led Zeppelin feelin' kinda day. So I listened to a buch a Zep on the way down.
One song stuck out to me today, "When the Levee Breaks". I've listened to it thousands of times in my life, it's really a great tune. One of the bluesy tunes off of Zeppelin IV where Robert Plant kills it on the harmonica. The chorus says,
If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break
If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break
When the levee breaks, I'll have no place to stay
The image during the song is that it's been raining a lot, and the levee has the pressure from all the storms, and if the levee breaks it will flood the village and the singer will have no place to live. The flooding would cause destruction and devestation and wipe out what is valuable.
Today as I was listening to this on my way to Alcoa, I was thinking about the levees, or dams, in our lives. Not literal Boone Lake Dams, but the spiritual ones. Although that Boone Lake Dam might make a good sermon illustration too, the leaks down below the service at the bottom that aren't realized until it's almost too late--firm foundations are important in life and in dams.
But I think that we store up things, dam up things, keep things held in place by levees, and this can do us harm over time.
Maybe the dam needs to open, maybe the damn levee needs to break.
Think for a minute about the things that we store up behind our levees; things like anxiety, stress, depression, low self esteem, poor self image, fear, uncertainy for the future, and regrets from the past, anger, bitterness. The list could go on and on.
I think that sometimes we store these things behind the levee. After all, we know they shouldn't be there in our good Christian lives, so if it shouldn't be there let's just pretend it's not there, right? And the result is more and more crap being stored up behind that levee, until one day...it breaks.
I think that is a good thing.
Surrender is at the heart of our faith. It's not about having an industrial strength re-inforced levee to hold it all in. Maybe it's time to let it out,
My wife is a much better letter-outer than I am, but I am learning from her, and learning from Jesus more and more each day.
The only way to be filled with the rich goodness of this life is to let go of some of the things that don't need to be there, that don't need to be in us. And sometimes that might seem easier said than done. But often times it's because we have a white-knuckle grip on these things, saying we want to let go but holding on. And when we do let go sometimes it is more of a sssllloooowwww slipping from our clinched fingers rather than a wide open full release.
One daily practice that I believe can help with this is engaging in what is known as release prayers.
If you're holding onto some of those things I listed above, or you have your own specialized and personalized list of levee-kept issues. How about we try this together?
1. Get comfortable. Not curled up with my favorite blanket ready for a nap comfy. But rather just find some stillness. Turn off the distractions (yes, that would be the TV....and yes, you need to lay your phone down).
2. How do you feel? Where are you holding tension in your body? Why is it there? Think more about how you feel spiritually and emotionally rather than physically, although that physical condition might be causing how you are feeling emotionally. You can get sick and tired of feeling physically sick and tired which will make you emotionally and spiritually sick and tired.
3. Name you feeling.
4. Visualize God with you. Not the theoretical head knowledge that you've gotten from decades at church that God is with you. I mean really personalize to visualize God with you. Feel His presence. Talk to Him. Acknoweldge that how you feel and God with you are both very present realities.
5. Now, release how you are feeling to the Lord. Picture Jesus taking your anxiety, and removing it. See the Holy Spirit covering your fear with His comforting presence. Even if your feelings are all positive today, visualize releasing the joy in your heart and peace in your mind as a thanksgiving offering to God.
Release.
6. Pray. Verbalize it to acknowledge God taking what you have given Him, you are releasing what is not your responsibility to carry in the first place. Besides, we weren't created to be strong enough to carry it all anyway, or to keep it leveed up. And now, give thanks, breathe, and move on.
I don't want to over simplify this, and I am aware that some things we are holding onto are harder to release than by just following the simple steps above. And I agree.
That's why the levee needs to break!
May the Lord break your levee today to allow a fresh release of what you ahve been holding in, and a fresh release of His Holy Spirit to be poured out upon and fill you in a might new way.
If you want to check out the song referenced in today's blog, here ya go: When the Levee Breaks
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