Find Your Lake
Photo by Max Bender on Unsplash
Let’s just say it together, “People will disappoint you.” Whew and woosah! And if your immediate response is, “I won’t allow people to disappoint me,” good for you! You’ve mastered and walked the path that’s not well traveled. And for the believer who says, “I only trust in God,” as the youngins say, “I love that for you!” But in case there is remains a remnant of people who still love and try when “people are peopling,” let’s care for ourselves gently and grant ourselves permission to set a few boundaries and lick our wounds with care.
Growing up in Chicago, I lived about 15 blocks from Lake Michigan. I would regularly ride my bike to the lakefront. The trek to get there was filled with busy. Lots of cars, blowing and swerving around the city buses. People were loud, shouting and moving about their lives. The sidewalks were cracked and uneven, so maneuvering would sometimes require me to ride in the street, trying not to get hit by a vehicle. The trip was stressful, but I knew that just a glimpse of the water would make it all worthwhile. And you know what? It most certainly did. The lake soothed me and it still does. In fact, our Bible affirms that perhaps a similar calling persisted for Jesus. Mark 2:13 reads, “Once again Jesus went out beside the lake.” This was a practice for Jesus – to go beside the water, before the people came – which they often did.
So, what is the connection between people and the lake? I’m glad you asked. If we are to engage with others, with the creation that God placed in and around us, we must establish a practice to enable us to interact with them – even when they disappoint. I don’t know if Jesus has a lake in heaven, but to be sure, I disappoint Him often, and yet He has never left me, nor will He ever. I am working to not be so quick to dismiss people, but to instead grant them what they may need – space, time or a different level of access to me, or perhaps even a more heightened version of myself, when I’ve been “by the lake.”
I no longer live 15 blocks from the lake, but I must engage a practice of solitude and serenity that mimics what the lake gifted me – reflection, solace, breath, peace, transformation, reimagination, rejuvenation and redirection. The cares that I held before suddenly seemed less present because I embraced the invitation to care for myself, as I care for others.
We cannot cut everyone off. If that is your mantra for 2025, good luck to you. I am not only disappointed from time to time by those I love, but also by random folx in the grocery store or on the interstate. Further, I am not exempt from disappointing others as well. What relationships might we have if each of us take ownership to go “by the lake” through a regular and consistent regimen? As opposed to thinking of “setting boundaries” so that people cannot break in, why not “set boundaries” for ourselves so that we collectively experience breakthrough? When we feel depleted, when others deplete us, I wonder what safe word we many implement to check in and determine if we’ve been “by the lake.” We may be the answer to someone else’s prayer.