Fish & Jellyfish

Whenever I walk along the beach and see marooned jellyfish, I feel sorry for them.  Their tendency to drift rather than swim causes them to be blown by winds and dragged by currents.  Regular fish are rarely seen dead on the beach; they can swim against the tide and choose their direction.

When we doubt Jesus’ character, promises, and words we become jellyfish.  We begin to drift; victims carried along by changing ideas and circumstances.

the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.  (James 1:5-8)

The Bible warns us about the dangers of drifting.

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son… Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.  (Hebrews 1:1, 2:1)

The only way to recover from drifting is to swim!  The first step of “swimming” is re-reading and re-discovering the promises of God.  Look more carefully at the words and actions of Jesus and make decisions based on these.  Swim against the tide of life not waiting for opportunities but making them, not being reactive but proactive, not being accidental but intentional.

Remember that the ancient symbol for Christianity was the fish not the jellyfish!

Denis Oliver