Let good flow through you

Many years ago there was a beautiful lake high in the Rockie Mountains that lost it’s reviving freshness.

The water formerly had been crystal clear. It was alluring to animals and people alike. It was known for its great fishing, canoing and camping.

But it had become covered with a green yucky scum. Animals became ill from drinking the water. People quit using the lake for recreation.

Finally someone came by the lake who understood what the problem was.

What was the problem? Could it be brought back to its pristine condition for animals and humans to enjoy once again?

Over time, debris collecting from the hard spring rains had stopped up the dam and prevented the free flow of water not into the lake but out of the lake.

The spillway was cleared and soon the lake was fresh and clean again. The flow in and out of the rain water was necessary to keep the water pure.

Doesn’t the same principle apply to you and me as human beings? The blessings of life flow to you and me but we fail to realize that most of these blessings are not meant just to flow to us but through us for the good of others around us, especially for those in need.

In Luke’s gospel, we have one of those sad stories about a person who didn’t keep things flowing in his life with the result that his life became clogged and ended in tragedy. We don’t know the man’s name as Jesus told this story and simply called him the “rich man.”

We may take that to mean that the man was richly blessed.

Family and businesses opportunity are often mentioned.

In any case, a lot of life’s blessings have flowed to this man but it seems that very few of those blessings flowed from him reaching other people .

Jesus gives us this sparse description, “That there was once a rich man who dressed in the most expensive clothes and lived in great luxury every day.”

Jesus doesn’t say he was happy because he dressed in the most expensive clothes. Jesus doesn’t say the man was joyful because he lived in great luxury everyday.

Jesus simply says that a lot of life’s blessings flowed into this man’s life but hardly anything, it seems, flowed through the man to other people.

In fact, Jesus makes it clear most of the man’s blessings got clogged in his own hands and rarely flowed through his life to others except by accident.

Jesus also noted, “There was also a poor man named Lazarus covered with sores, who used to be brought to the rich man’s door hoping to eat the food that fell from the rich man’s table.”

Surely part of the reason Jesus tells the story is to appeal to us to keep things flowing in our lives.

If we don’t, like that we become stagnant spiritually.

But how do we keep things flowing in our lives?

I think we do it by daily reading the scriptures, attending church and coming to God’s welcoming communion table, then allowing God’s grace and love to flow through us as a blessing to others.

We also do it by sharing those abundant blessings that God has given us with those less fortunate in the community.

As Jesus said also, “When did I see you in prison, when did I see you hungry, when did I see you naked, when did I see you all alone?”

May we have eyes to see, ears to hear and hands to serve one another as we continue in the new year.

Rev. Frank Chlastak retired as senior minister of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He is a graduate of Northeast Louisiana University and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and has served congregations of the Christian Church in Louisiana, Arkansas, Virginia, Oklahoma and Missouri.