Stagnant Pond Or Flowing Waters?

There’s an old song by Dionne Warwick that said, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love. That’s the very thing that there’s just too little of.” If we stop and think about how we describe God, God is love, then what we really need is God, sweet God. And not only do we need the love of God, but we need to share the love of God.

One of the assignments the youth in our confirmation class are required to complete is the writing of their faith statement, what they, as Christians, believe. Now, you know that youth are not thrilled about having to write papers and I told them that I’ve had to write a faith statement 3 times.

In explaining to them what a faith statement was, I remember, in writing my first one, that I called myself a “stagnant pond” Christian. Now most of you know that a stagnant pond may receive water in the form of rainfall, but the water doesn’t leave the pond. There is no movement out of the water. It just stagnates. The water turns green and starts to smell.

That’s how my life was. I was a “stagnant pond”. I was receiving the love of God but there was no movement out of the love. The love was stagnating in me.

Now, you take that pond, full of murky, green, smelly, still water and you cut an opening into it. And you allow that still water to flow out of the pond. Then that stagnate pond has changed into flowing water. And an amazing thing happens. The water clears up. It loses that smell. It starts to flow down and out and nourish things.

God took hold of me one day and He cut an opening into my hard heart. All the love I had been receiving, that had stagnated, started flowing out and began nourishing things. I had been changed from a “stagnant pond” Christian to a “flowing water” Christian.

Of course a stagnant pond won’t clear up and lose it’s smell overnight. And I didn’t either. But people that knew me before saw the change. The waters of love had started flowing out of me.

I couldn’t hide it, even if I had wanted to. I’m sure you’ve all seen someone who’s been out in the sun too long without sunscreen or a hat. You can just look at their sunburned face, all red, and know that they got too much sun.

Do you remember the story of when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai and the people couldn’t bear to look at him because they saw the reflection of God’s glory in his face? People can look at your sunburned face and tell you got too much sun but are you so filled with the love of God that they look at you and know you got the Son? Is the love you are receiving from God flowing out of you and does it show in your face? Can people see the love of God in our faces?

All of us need affection. Jesus says in verse 12, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus is telling us to share our love with one another. Don’t let the love given to you by God stagnate, let it flow out to others, nourishing them.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, “Okay, John, how do we let the love flow out to others?” Well, I’m glad you asked. It’s simple. Let’s practice right now. Say, “I love you.” [People respond]