Christian Living
The Flow
Michael Blackston
PREFACE
What is "The Flow"?
Simply put, it's a term I came up with to describe the river of events that occur as a result of not only our actions, but also our attitudes.
I thought of it while on one my many road trips around the state of South Carolina where I go from monument company to monument company etching artwork onto tombstones. I wish, because I work on gravestones day in and day out, I could say that the idea of The Flow happened as a circumstance of profound meditation on the thin ice of mortality. However, I have to give all credit to God as the idea just popped in there. True, I was in my "driving prayer time" but God revealed it to me because I was feeling lousy and it was coming across in everything and everyone that I came into contact with - and it was early morning. I started to wonder how far my attitude would reach toward ruining the day for others and then it hit me.
I should just stop it.
I make it my business to try and be a very positive person at all times, but being as flawed as anyone, perhaps more-so, I have been known to fail miserably. This day was a “failing miserably” kind of day and I decided to do something about it. I decided to decide how I would look at things, how I would react to the world around me. Or rather, I took the control of my emotional state from the hands of the adversary and put the control into the hands of God. I thought it a very important thing to do.
No duh, right? Well apparantly it’s something that sounds logical but is not practiced by very many people today, even Christians.
I have let someone’s crummy attitude and rude behavior dampen and set the course of my day more times than I’d like to count and that, in turn, caused me to be crummy to someone else. Who knows what that did to that someone else’s day and who was affected by their crummy attitude and so on and so forth. It’s a chain that will continue until it hits a wall, most often compounding upon itself and when it meets that wall, the results are frequently disastrous.
I write a lot. I start pieces of literature when I take a notion, sometimes fiction, sometimes not. I think I’m supposed to write this one to completion, though, because God brought me to the verse later in the evening that encompasses everything I’m trying to convey. I had not seen this verse before because to be quite honest, I was new to being a faithful and daily reader of the word of God. I’m just being transparent. As I’ve grown in the Lord, I’ve obtained a deep hunger for the scriptures that I had never known before. On the night I was inspired to write this, I was directed to this scripture from Hebrews chapter 12. Verses 14 & 15:
“Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness--without it no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and by it, defiling many.” (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
I believe that says it all.
The way we deal with the adversities of our daily lives WILL have a direct impact on the lives of those around us. It became of the utmost importance to me that I be an example of Christ’s love to all those around me, regardless of what may be going on in my life at that moment. Even on his cross, our Savior uttered a prayer of forgiveness to the very people ravishing his body and mocking him. “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” This is the example I want to be to others.
This is patience. This is love. This is understanding. This is forgiveness.
This is Christ.
--Michael Blackston
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