Waters That Buoy

The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.

Proverbs 18:4

It has been over two years since I loaded up the little blue boat. I had forgotten the feel of my smallness surrounded by expanses of water. The kayak sets me slightly below the waterline giving me the feeling of vulnerability, yet exhilaration, too. Deep water is exhilarating, like deep words, they set me to thinking. A snake could slide over the side, I see large snapping turtles and even though they are afraid of me, I approach with caution, and when a large fish breaks and splashes close by me, I wonder who might be the biggest fish under there. Could a big one wobble my watercraft; maybe an ancient gar, maybe a behemoth catfish? I notice that on the water my imagination is alive and well.

Just awhile back, my son and I were in the deep waters of White Oak rec. area when we suddenly ran into shallows causing our boats to drag and stop. We heaved and pushed against the bottom just eight or ten inches deep with our paddles and painstakingly made it out and back into the deep. Shallow waters are not for me, not for those wanting to go deep, those wanting to discover.

The water I give him will become a spring of water welling up in him to eternal life. -John 4:14

When I’m out on the water, I’m often thinking of the things I’ve heard, the things I’ve read, the conversations I’ve had. My heart is buoyed on the waters of many words or dragged down with them. Like you, I have filled my heart and the words I speak are the overflow of this heart transaction.

For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. Matthew 12:34

So many words… so many, many words– and we, choosing our filling.

The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

Proverbs 10:11

I had a dream. My bare feet were in water almost up to my knees. The water was dark like in Gar Creek, or the Arkansas River backwater gathering behind Turner’s law office. It was muddy water, the kind you can’t see through. My feet were vulnerable. I knew they were because I saw the snapping turtle descend and then the ridge of an alligator’s snout. These waters were not safe for me. “The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters”, Solomon said. But if those deep waters spring from an evil heart, how treacherous those waters are to cross.

I walked up a trail in Yosemite once and came upon a deep pool in a mountain river. I could see myself in the water and I could see through to the deep bottom too; clean and clear. In the Smokies I saw this again, those waters you just want to climb into. When a man is speaking from deep waters fed and filled up from bubbling springs, one is safe to climb in as my sister and I did in that Smoky Mountain river– clothes on, heads under, we had no fear. We felt the exhilaration of life, of being truly alive.

I want to buoy my life on good waters, on right and pure words. I want my words to be the same for you.

From the fruit of his mouth a man’s belly is filled; with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied. Proverbs 18:20