Wave Upon Wave

Now that Autumn is certainly here, I was reminiscing the other day about an experience I had on a beautiful, sunny afternoon this summer. I was kayaking in the waters of a pristine lake in upstate Michigan. I had just paddled out of an inlet that I had shared with some lake loons (the waterfowl variety) and a few herons and it was indeed a sacred moment. I was admiring and taking in God’s handiwork, when all of a sudden another lake loon (the human variety) came flying by in front of me in a speedboat. He was there and gone in a fantail spray of foam, but his wake wasn’t. For some time after the boat had disappeared, the waves it had created kept rolling in. I nearly tanked it; it took all I had to keep my balance and not capsize. Mr. Boatguy probably never thought about the wake he was leaving - long after he left. He was just passing through.

If you've ever spent much time in or by a lake, it's something you've experienced for yourself. Long after the boat has passed, the waves it created are still making an impact. You know, our lives are like that. Long after we've passed on, the waves our choices have made are still impacting many other lives. In our "now is all that matters" culture, it's easy to forget how much our choices matter and how long their effects last. Life is about so much more than this moment.

In Psalm 102:18 God gives us a powerful values-clarification. The psalmist says, "Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord." Think about that! God focuses our eyes on the ‘big picture reason’ for doing the right thing, because what you do now will affect lives that have not even been born yet - generations you will never see! Think about it. You and I are continuing to benefit from the choices previous generations have made, and to pay for choices previous generations have made. They've passed by, but not the waves they created. They are still rocking our lives.

The psalm goes on to point out the long-lasting effects of making God's choices your choices: "The children of Your servants will live in Your presence; their descendants will be established before You." Again, multiple generations whose destiny will be shaped by what we do now. Pretty sobering, isn't it?

So the choices you're making or about to make—are they worth it in light of long-range consequences? Sometimes decisions made temporarily have lasting ramifications that roll on for a lifetime. They may affect us, the people we love, to generations we may never see. Maybe you're tempted to return to the old you, but stop and think about generations that could feel the impact of that choice. Again, perhaps we are all still feeling the affects of those same choices made by people who went before us - when we were "the people not created" yet.

There's so much more at stake in the choices we make and the way we live than we could ever imagine. Things are being passed from us to others, especially our children, who will in turn pass it on to those they influence and who will in turn just keep it alive across the generations.

Before you go speeding into what you may be considering, would you think about it and consider the waves that your life is making? Make the choices that will cause those who follow you to bless your memory and the God that you helped them find across those years.

Still waters run deep.
Art