Reflection - August 23, 2026 - How is Our Flow?

Sermon: “How Is Our Flow?”   Traci Hubbard

Isaiah 58:6–12  (Key Verses *11)               August 23^rd, 2026

It has been said that beavers do not give a damn. We laugh…but the truth is, beavers create the dam.

There is something beautiful about water. You can put it in a glass, and it looks peaceful. Put it in a river, and it moves. Put it over a waterfall, and it makes a tremendous noise. And put it in my kitchen sink when the drain is plugged and suddenly it becomes an icky sticky problem. Because water is designed to flow. It doesn't want to sit there forever. And I think there is something the Holy wants us to understand about our spiritual lives: Infinite LOVE does not pour Her Spirit into us simply so we can contain the Spirit. Mystery pours the Spirit into us so that the Spirit can flow through us. So, the question today isn't simply, “Do I have the Spirit?” Our question is, “How is my flow?”

Water Needs Somewhere to Go

Isaiah 58 is a fascinating passage because the people are asking, “Why aren't You answering us?” They are fasting, praying, doing religious things and Infinite LOVE says, “You're missing the point.” They are looking for God to bless them while they are failing to become the blessing others need. LOVE says, “Is not this the fast that I choose…to lose the bonds of wickedness…to let the oppressed go free…to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house?” In other words, we cannot…will not keep receiving from LOVE while refusing to let what LOVE gives us flow outward.

Sometimes we want the blessing of LOVE to be like a swimming pool. We want to jump in, be refreshed, and relax in the cool water and then we want to float and relax. We want a little uplifting or soul moving music playing in the background. But LOVE says, “I didn't give you a swimming pool. I gave you a river.” A river has somewhere to go. And when the Spirit of LOVE comes into our lives, She, Sophia, Wisdom, begins looking for a way to move.

Here's the strange thing about a river and a lake. The water makes beautiful sounds because of what is in its way. If you have ever sat beside a creek running over rocks, you know the sound. The water hits a rock. It moves around it. It falls over it. It splits. And then it joins together again. And somehow, what looks like an obstacle becomes part of the beauty. Water would not sound as beautiful without rocks in its way. The rocks aren't always the problem. That might be worth remembering when life gets difficult.

We tend to pray, “Loving One, please remove every rock. Please take away this difficulty. Please make my life smooth. Please make this moment easier. Please make fulfilling what you have called us to be as a community of faith easier.” And sometimes LOVE does remove the rock. But sometimes LOVE says, “I'm going to teach you how to flow around it.” Because the rock doesn't have to stop the river. The rock can actually give the river a voice. Some of the most beautiful things that come out of our lives do not come from the easy seasons. They come from the places where we've had to learn patience. Forgiveness. Compassion. Courage and Faith in taking risks and then perseverance and adaptability when we live into them. Sometimes the very thing we want LOVE to remove becomes the place where LOVE teaches us how to flow.

When I was teaching in Houston, I took a walk through the countryside and came across a small stream. It wasn't impressive. It wasn't one of those dramatic rivers we see in photographs. It was just a little stream winding through the landscape. As I walked, I noticed something. The stream had to travel around everything. There were rocks. Branches. Roots. Mud. Uneven ground. Nothing about its path was straight. And yet the stream kept moving. I watched it flow around one rock and over another. Where the ground dropped, the water dropped. Where the path narrowed, the water narrowed. Where the path opened up, the water opened up. I remember thinking, “That is a lot like life.” We spend so much energy asking the Spirit, “Why is this thing, this person, this situation in my way?” But perhaps sometimes the better question is, “LOVE, how do You want me to flow with and through this?” Folks, the water doesn't spend its time arguing with the rock. It just keeps moving.

Listen to what happens when we begin living differently. Isaiah says, “Then your light shall break forth like the dawn…” And later, “The Lord will guide you continually…” And then, “You shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” That's beautiful. The living Spirit of LOVE isn't just interested in filling us. She wants to make us a spring. And a spring doesn't exist for itself. It gives…refreshes…makes things grow. It brings life to places that might otherwise remain dry. This is the picture Isaiah gives us. When we begin releasing what the Universe has placed within us, when we feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, speak the language and sing the songs of today’s culture, when we care for the hurting, forgive, love, serve, and seek justice…something happens. The Spirit begins to flow.

But what happens when the flow gets blocked? Here's where it gets uncomfortable. A river, a community of faith, can have water and still become stagnant if the flow is blocked. And sometimes our problem isn't that the Spirit isn't pouring. Sometimes our problem is that we have built a dam. Maybe it's resentment that culture keeps changing which demands the church change too. Maybe it's fear about being and doing something new. Maybe it's pride about what we have already accomplished, about what we are currently doing. Maybe it's unforgiveness…why did Jim leave? Joan? Why did so and so snuff out the fire in the children and youth program? Maybe we've been hurt and decided, “I'm never opening myself up again, especially not to the leadership of an Italian Texan.” Maybe we've received LOVE's grace but don't want to extend grace to somebody else…you know…that person who will never deserve it from you, from me. And suddenly, what was meant to flow through us begins to pool inside us. We become spiritually full, but not spiritually fruitful. We're carrying a lot of progressive thought, Celtic wisdom, Buddhist peace, contemplative Mysticism, even Bible verses, but nobody around us is getting refreshed. We're carrying a lot of hymns…old hymns, even new songs, but somehow, we're still difficult to live with. We know how to say, “The Spirit is good all of the time,” but we're not sure how to say, “I'm sorry…I’m a rock that is blocking the way and I want you to know I truly give a thoughtful damn.” Friends, sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is let LOVE remove the blockage.

The image LOVE gave to me is powerful, “The Spirit falls upon us and into us so we can flow Her way.” Think about rain we so desperately need. Rain falls from above. We cannot manufacture or create it, or we would have put out all the destructive fires. Rain can only be received. The water finds its way to and through the earth. Into streams, rivers, gardens, lakes, forests, orchards…into all the places that need life. This is what LOVE’s Spirit wants to do in us. LOVE wants us to receive what we could never manufacture ourselves. And then LOVE wants us to allow Her Living Water to flow in us and move through us. We are not created and called to become the source. Infinite LOVE is our source. Our job is to become and stay open and available so we will keep flowing and adapting with LOVE.

The questions I want us to ask ourselves today and every day that follows is, “How is my flow? Am I flowing? Or am I stuck? Is the Spirit of LOVE moving through me? Is forgiveness moving through me? Is compassion moving through me? Is generosity moving through me? Is social justice moving through me? Is hope moving through me? Or has something become a blockage?

Isaiah 58 gives us a very practical picture of spiritual flow. Feed someone. Help someone. Free someone. Welcome someone. Clothe someone. Care for someone. Stand with someone. Repair what has been broken. Let go off old ways that do not speak to today’s culture and begin new ways so you can be a living legacy of LOVE. And the Spirit says that when we do this, we become like, “a watered garden… a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”

Maybe today you're facing a rock. A disappointment. A difficult relationship. A change in health or some other part of your life you didn't ask for. Maybe a door has closed. Maybe you’re in a season of life that doesn't make sense.

Today, the church is facing a rock, a lot of rocks, in fact, a dam. And maybe you've been praying, like the church has been praying, “God, please move this rock.”

But perhaps there is another prayer we need to admit and speak, “LOVE, I have been a rock in the way. Please show me how to soften, even move out of the way, and teach me how to flow with you.”

The rocks and the many kinds of dams(ns) do not have to be the end of our story. We have the choice to make them become part of our song. The water hits the rock and makes a sound. It falls and keeps moving. It gets redirected and keeps moving. It gets squeezed into a narrow place and keeps moving. It drops into a valley and keeps moving. Why? Because water knows what it was made to do. It was made to flow. I believe this is what the Spirit is reminding us today. We were not filled so we can stay full. We are filled so we can overflow. The Spirit falls upon us. The Spirit falls into us. And then the Spirit flows through us in Her life-giving way. This week, may we not just ask, “Living Water, fill me.” May we ask, “Living Water, flow through me.”

When you meet someone who is hurting…flow. When forgiveness is needed…flow. When generosity is needed…flow. When someone needs encouragement…flow. When social justice is needed…flow. When someone feels forgotten…flow. When coming alive into a new way of being demands change…flow. And when you encounter a rock in the river of your life, don't automatically assume LOVE has abandoned you. Stop. Look. Listen. Maybe there is a new song being made. Because water would not sound as beautiful without rocks in its way. Water falls, moves and continues. And the Spirit falls upon us and into us, so we can flow Her way.

May we not imitate Beavers and remove every dam in the way of our flow.

May it be so, amen.