Knee Deep

I live in the Pacific Northwest, and there is usually no shortage of rain in the winter. January was a very rainy month. In fact, a couple of weeks ago we were dealing with some pretty significant flooding. As I took my son to school each day, I watched the water building in the fields, filling up the ditches, and then begin creeping onto the roads. The waters have receded now, and only a few fields continue to have pools of water, but it got me thinking…

There is a line in a song by Kathy Mattea that says, “…standing knee deep in a river, and dying of thirst.”

How often do I stand knee deep in the river of God’s abundant grace and feel like I’m dying of thirst? It seems like an absurd thought because I know that He is faithful and His grace is abundant, and yet sometimes it feels like an accurate description of my inner struggles. I am a perfectionist. I expect things of myself that are often unreasonable or simply unattainable. I struggle with striving, and find myself panting in exhaustion, somehow forgetting about the river of His grace that is flowing around me.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21, NASB)

His Word is refreshing and floods my soul with love and encouragement.

He strengthens me with power through His Spirit.

He dwells in my heart through faith.

He will help me comprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth of His love.

I can know what it is like to be filled up to all the fullness of God.

...and because I believe, I know that I am standing "knee deep" in the middle of His saving grace…

On those hard days when I struggle and strive, all I need to do is…

Bend,
Dip,
Drink.