Drops Filling an Ocean

Our DI team did fantastically well. They won first place, but I can tell you that without boasting because there was only one team in their division. As long as they made it up on stage, they were guaranteed first place. But everyone of them was working towards achieving a high enough score that they felt they would be worthy to attend the "Global Final"- the international collection of thousands of DI winners from all over the world.

One team barely made it on stage- as they were setting up, a piece of PVC pipe caught a little boy in the face, and lacerated his cheek. He was rushed to the hospital for stitches and his team valiantly performed without him. This is very difficult since each member has parts and roles worked on for almost a year.

My team is made up of very different people. Some are artists, some singers, some actresses, some daydreamers, some builders, some comedians, some thoughtful, some hasty, some goofy, some brainy, some serious.... They come from families all with their unique struggles and stresses. It is a huge commitment for them to show up once a week for two hours for almost a year to work on this extracurricular task in the midst of the busyness of life. We always have issues to deal with, to work through. Our differences are constantly bumping up against our task, and sometimes the biggest lesson is leaving the session still liking each other.

Before our contest, Arvo, Asherel and I went hiking in the gorgeous Dupont State forest. Just two hours from Charlotte, I had not even known it existed. In the space of an hour, we saw a half dozen of some of the most spectacularly beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen. We hiked to the top of the mountain and stood a long time watching the river as it approached the sudden drop over the cliff just a couple of hundred feet ahead. The water seemed peaceful, even lazy as it slid under the bridge we stood on. I thought about all those thousands of drops of water, coalescing and rambling along, not knowing that ahead of them, they were about to cascade on the ride of their life. Each drop of water was unique, yet each was being pushed together and forced to rush down that river to their ultimate resting place, the ocean. As they plunged over the precipice, some of the drops would be flung heavenward and briefly exult in moments of individual brilliance, catching the sun, painting a rainbow, but ultimately, that drop too would fall back with the others and tumble to the sea.

Team Waterfall reminded me of Team DI and Team family... and every group of humans that endeavor to reach a goal. There is so much pushing and shoving along the way, periods of uncomfortable obstacles to smash against, portions of the path that split and diverge and travel separate routes, frightening but exhilarating plunges to new, untraveled territory, and finally, a rushing together to a common goal. It is easy for the water drops, they have no choice. They can't reach the cliff edge and say , "I am not heading over that waterfall with all you suicidal droplets... I am heading back upstream for a nice rest on the warm rock and evaporating trip to Tahiti." Nope, they can't choose Tahiti- they can't choose to not plunge with the other drops.

We can. We do have a choice. I am always sad when we humans don't all glide silkily together. It sometimes seems so impossible a task. So that makes moments like yesterday so special when my team stood on stage, and for 8 minutes united beautifully with one goal and one mind and every parent breathed the same sigh of relief when no one fainted, no one missed any discernible part, and they all were smiling at the end. I am a staunch individualist, and yet, if I am going over a waterfall, I want to be holding the hands of a team. And I want us all to be cascading to the right place.

Philippians 3:13,14

Forgetting what lies behind and straining
forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of
the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.