Waves.

Wave motion can be instructive.


If you have a chance to go to a wave tank, you might see sometihng interesting. Go to one end of the tank, and start churning the water with your hand. At the other end of the tank, have another person do the same. The waves that are created will move in opposite directions toward each other, and if you stand in the middle of the wave tank, you should see several things:


(1) some of the waves cancel each other out


(2) some of the waves augment each other, and


(3) some of the waves don't seem like they do anything, and merely pass right through each other without getting cancelled or augmented.


I am beginning to see my life in a community in a similar manner. Assuming that we are all just splashing around in a pool, our actions result in waves that are formed in the pool. If I act in concert with the other waves, my actions are augmented, and if I do not, my actions either have no effect or are muted by others acting in opposition.


So the question is really about vision. Do I share in the vision of others in the community I have chosen to be my own? At work, the answer is, of course. I only keep my job by working in concert with my colleagues, my staff, and my superiors. We work together, and so I keep my employment. The same thing goes with my personal life, with my family. I try my best to stay in sync with them, and most of the time, we try to work in concert so that we are not working against one another.


The last community to be examined is the community of believers to whom I have chosen to be close, to work together and to engage in fellowship. How do the waves look, from this position.

The problem is, of course, one cannot see what the effect is, of what one is doing. You just can't be a part of a community and be able to judge it effectively in real-time.

And this means that you have no idea of what you are doing, what the community is doing, and whether what you are doing is having a positive effect on the whole.

-David