What moves you?

What moves you? I’m not asking about what moves you emotionally because we’re all touched by the beautiful brand new baby or the lovely bride making her way down the aisle. No, I’m asking, what moves you.....deeply?

I ask because, in an age that seems to be driven by media stories and social media, sometimes we find ourselves dealing with whiplash because of the sudden direction change in stories and events. It’s a bit like the icy waters surrounding the island of Greenland. There you will find countless icebergs, some tiny, some gigantic. If you could watch them closely you would see that the smaller icebergs sometimes move in one direction, while the larger icebergs move in another direction.

Why is that? How is that even possible? Shouldn’t they all move the same direction - the direction the wind is blowing? Actually, no. The smaller icebergs are driven by surface winds. When the wind is blowing to the north, the small icebergs move to the north. When it blows to the south, the small icebergs blow to the south.

The smaller icebergs tend to go wherever the prevailing winds will take them, but the larger icebergs are directed by deep ocean currents. The thing is, you can’t see the deeper currents, but they’re there. If an iceberg has sufficient depth, it can be carried by the current, in spite of which way the wind is blowing.

People - particularly in our current culture - are much like the icebergs around Greenland. Those who have sufficient depth aren’t moved by the wind of public opinion or ideological fashion. They aren’t swayed by the winds of random influence or activity. Instead, they are directed by those things that are far deeper.

James, the brother of Jesus, wrote something about this. He said, "Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom." (James 1:5, ETRV)

We can be "blown about by the wind" and "tossed by the waves", or we can choose to go deeper and seek to use the wisdom that God so generously gives to those who ask Him. A man known as The Apostle Paul, who wrote over 1/3 of the New Testament, said it this way, "Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching (or every new media story). We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. (Ephesians 4:14, NLT)

There are always going to be winds and waves of opinion that will try and blow us off course. I challenge you to be deep enough in your relationship with God, deep enough in your relationships with others and deep enough in thought and intellect that you don’t allow yourself to be blown away from what you know to be true.