Travelers to Israel are often surprised by the astonishing difference between the Sea of Galilee, which sits in the northern part of Israel, and the Dead Sea, which sits in the south. Clear mountain waters from the Golan Heights flow into the Sea of Galilee, resulting in a beautiful body of water that teams with life – fish life and plant life in an astonishingly rich diversity.
From that sea of abundance and variety in the northern part of the country flows the Jordan River, which heads its winding way south. Along its path the Jordan water is used to irrigate the Jordan Valley, making it green and verdant.
The Jordan River eventually flows to the very lowest point on the face of the earth, some 1400 feet below sea level. There it dead ends into another body of water which sits in the southern part of Israel, the Dead Sea. Having no outlet, the salt and mineral concentration in the Dead Sea has become extremely high. With a salinity level of 34 percent, it is ten times as salty as the ocean, and far too salty to support life.
Of course, comparisons between the Sea of Galilee and its near neighbor, the Dead Sea, are almost inevitable. While they share their water source, they manage their water assets quite differently.
The Sea of Galilee receives clear fresh water and it gives it away to the Jordan River. Because the waters of the Sea of Galilee are constantly moving and circulating, flowing out and being replenished, they remain fresh and lively, clean, clear and beautiful. They are life-giving and life-sustaining.
But the Dead Sea is stagnant and stingy. Although it is fed by the life-giving Jordan waters, it never gives away the resource it receives. It hoards its water wealth, which results in a vast body of lifelessness.
Is human thriving dependent on the same principles of movement, sharing, and circulation that govern the health of the great waters of Israel? Could it be that we humans only survive spiritually, if like the Sea of Galilee, we both receive and release life-sustaining blessings?
What do we do with the richness of life’s gifts and blessings which flow our way? If we become fearful and anxious about them, if we hoard and hang on to everything we receive, then perhaps we will have engaged in an ultimately fatal strategy that does not enhance life but stifles it.
What blessings have flowed your way? Love, wisdom, wealth, faith, hope? What are you doing with them? Are you investing them? Spreading them? Letting them flow out from you as graciously as God let them flow in? Are you risking enough, caring enough, loving enough to make a difference in the world around you? If so, then no doubt your life is vital, fresh, sweet, and sustaining – full of all the resources you need, and also a source of blessing to others.