I watch two boys gleefully chase each other around the bedroom. I sit on the floor, smiling amusedly with them—although slightly irritated that this is bedtime and no one is actually listening to mommy. I watch their faces as eyes light up and lips curl upward as they look toward one another for their next wrestling move.
These two brothers have found a best friend in their family member. Even when one doesn’t listen to me, he will at least listen to his brother. I am amazed at their tight bond so early in life.
They rush toward one another powerfully, crashing into one another, bringing each other to the ground, rolling around on the floor in pools of giggles. And then they get up and do it again…and again…and yet again. Mothers of boys, this never gets old, right?
I am reminded of the current of a waterfall, crashing over the side of strong rock, falling, falling, falling, into a larger body of water. Essentially water droplets colliding into other water droplets, careening off a cliff, dropping into a body of water below. When looking at a waterfall, beauty and brokenness coexist.
These two precious boys who bring me joy in this moment broke me in their newfound brotherhood. The joy of having a baby was brought crashing down by postpartum depression, two under two rivalry, and life circumstances out of my control.
Motherhood is an emotional waterfall, rushing toward the cliff, dropping over the edge, falling into the pool below. No matter where you are on the journey, you can expect to face the waterfall daily, weekly, monthly.
Don’t go chasing waterfalls, the song sings.
A powerful song about broken people who are lost. A mother prays for her children not to go chasing waterfalls. In this very broken earth, our selfishness that we see as happiness comes at the devastation of immoral character.
But what if waterfalls aren’t inherently evil, as the song portrays? What if they are the aftermath of the testing of our faith? Perseverance being the greatest trophy we could earn in regards to a faith preserved.
What if waterfalls aren’t chased, but are created in faith that has been eroded down, cracked open, with unnecessary parts falling away? So many people flock to a waterfall, the broken part of a fault line, and marvel at its magnificence.
Maybe a waterfall signifies a great act of God. A breaking out of everything we know and a breaking in to a way for God to create something beautiful.
And maybe a waterfall is a way for God to fill with Himself what has been broken by this world. Huge gushes of water tumbling over the ledge to a large pool below do not necessarily signify the end. Where does this healing begin?
Can you find healing in the broken, fault line?
Does healing mean you are put back together seamlessly, every fault forgotten, every crack invisibly smoothed?
Or does healing occur in the breaking and changing and overflowing? Just like a waterfall.
I imagine a river, flowing from point A to point B. The river cascades seamlessly through the land and believes that this is what water does. Rushing past leaning branches and smoothing rocks below, a river does just that. It flows.
And that was me, believing that faith was progressive, continuing to build in knowledge and power. Any setbacks were mentally solved and then forgotten, stalemating into the same rut of faith.
Sure my faith had grown from a tiny spark at a middle school christian camp to a large fire upon coming home, back to a dull flame, and again ignited in my 20s to a powerful roar, and then slowly back into the consistent river. Constant, but ultimately staying the same.
But when faith is shaken, an unsteady step forward seems impossible in our very own perspective. The shattering produces shard-like gaps in our sight.
This is why imagining an unshakeable kingdom is so powerful. The things that can be shaken will. And what is left is a proven, rocklike faith.
“This expression, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of what can be shaken — that is, created things — so that what is not shaken might remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”
Hebrews 12:27-29
The shaking of the earth leaves the unshakeable kingdom. God is shaking out everything around us that hinders our faith. Our routines, our self-sufficiency. Even our small, box-like faith. He breaks the smooth facade of the walls we put around us to show that it is Him working in us; He is our strength, our courage, our portion, our joy and peace.
Only through God alone is anything possible. Everything else can be shaken.
The testing of our faith produces endurance, which produces proven character, and ultimately produces the living hope we first find in Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate goal. Sole reliance on the open hands he offers. Romans 5:3-5
Through every difficult obstacle we come across, we have the option to turn to Jesus and trust Him or question everything resulting in the tearing down of everything good He is building. To believe that the box-like faith we have at the beginning of our faith journey will be the same at the end of our life-time is similar to Jesus continuing to call the disciples “Ye of little faith.”
I do not want to continue to be a baby Christian; at some point, the events we have faced and the things we have learned will either mature us or shatter our faith
Pray With Me
Father God, creator of waterfalls and everything that creates a waterfall, we place our faith in your hands. We want to trust you even when all the pieces of the puzzle come crashing down to the floor. Jesus, help our unbelief.
Father God, thank you for creating beauty out of the broken. We pray for eyes to see through the shakeable to the unshakeable. I believe it is through brokenness that your kingdom is seen even more brilliantly.
Lord, when the waterfalls of life want to drown us, I pray that we would choose to wonder in the best ways about the love your have for us. Not questioning if you love us but marveling at all the ways you truly love us. Let it be our most precious thoughts. Let us choose to believe you are good and that everything you do works seamlessly together for your good.
Lord, we pray that your love be the first thought we think of when we awake and the last thought as our heads hit the pillow. And we pray to love you and others in this same radical way.
In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
Chase the waterfall. Let the rushing water pull you over into the depths below where deep calls to deep. In the depths, when our head is crashing underwater, let’s choose to believe that God is bigger than our feeble minds could ever imagine, more wonderful than even the most brilliant of Fall colors, and more loving than the love you have in your heart for the person you love the most.
