ii. “Water” – A short reflection

Water has been on my mind a lot recently, and it really started on my boat ride over from Kirakira to Wainoni. As our 6 person boat bounced over the waves under the command of Fr. Pateliesio, and we sped past the various streams connecting the ocean to the middle of the island under the dense trees, my mind was drawn to a quote from the first page of Bob Goff’s most recent book Everybody, Always, which read “we’re rivers, not reservoirs.” What Bob means here is that we are not meant to collect and save up the love and the graces that God has given us, but rather we should work to advance that love throughout the land around us, weaving through obstacles and reaching the thirsty and the dry lands that the ocean cannot reach, to nurture the soils that will feed the many. If we act as reservoirs, we might provide love and grace for those who we want—just the neighbors we like—but that is not what Jesus does, or what God calls us to do. God’s love is just like the ocean in how deep, boundless and reckless it pounds on every shore in the same manner, eating away at the walls of rock or reef that we might have formed around our hearts to keep Him out.

We, too, are called to love recklessly and to spread His love and joy beyond simply immediate neighbors we surround ourselves with. We are called to love indiscriminately and unconditionally, as to get back to our source of joy—God’s love—we must run our love continuously. A river that runs from one side of Makira to fill the pipes of the Wainoni Marist Highschool on the other coast cannot one day decide to dry up at that one bend where there is an lonely tree (that drops too many coconuts in the river) and still expect to reach Wainoni Bay. That’s not how rivers work, and that’s not how we should operate either.

The rivers of Makira were fed the great gift of energy in the form of water from the ocean as they seek out their final destination on the other side of the island, where they will enter back into union with the ocean. So, too, are we fed the greatest gifts of energy in the form of love, grace, and joy from God as we seek out our final destination on the other side of death, where we will enter back into union with God. We must return these gifts in full to God, and to do that, we must learn to run continuously as a river does, leaping over rocks, carving through stone valleys, and spreading life as we find our way back to God. For many people, the ocean gives life, and the ocean is life. If God’s love is the ocean, then let us be His soldiers throughout the His lands.