I Want to Walk on the Water

(pronounced TAH-lih-kwah) I woke up this morning thinking about the grieving mama orca, Tahlequah. You may remember her highly publicized “Tour of Grief” in 2018. Heartbroken, she carried her dead baby girl, Tali, more than 1,000 miles over seventeen days. This story of raw grief is not uncommon in wildlife. In the same year, I read about a mother chimpanzee who also carried her stillborn baby for three days (“ Stillborn ”, The Journey blog). Over the years, I have read of two other chimps who did the same – one for three months and the other for seven. The thought of Tahlequah this morning drew me into a self-reflective mood. What is God saying through this powerful, yet sensitive, grieving mother? Am I still mourning a loss, or perhaps I am still bearing the weight of dead things? Does the internal work ever end? When I researched the biblical numerology in these sorrowful accounts, I found some remarkable and even uplifting insights. 🎺For the seventeen  days of mourning, we fin...

  “A fish always begins to stink at the head” is corporate jargon for saying leadership is the cause of an unsuccessful business or its organizational failures. Typically, that is a true statement not only in business, but in our country, communities, churches, and homes. If the head is not aligned with the Father, the rest of the body is out of sync. Let’s go deeper here and consider how this applies to us individually.  Have you ever heard the phrase “stink’n think’n”? That begins at the head, right?  If our thoughts are not aligned with the Father’s, our whole being is out of sync which translates to a life of chaos and disorder. Why It Matters What We Think King David wrote in Psalm 139 ESV : “O Lord, You have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.” This verse illustrates just how closely God hovers ...