THE RIVER IS WIDE

Right in the center of my 25-minute drive to Sardinia Baptist Church the road hugs a small creek for a quarter mile. 

With all the flooding around Columbus, as I drove to worship yesterday morning, I had my doubts the road would be passable.

But I drove right past the little creek. 

It was swollen but still flowing within its banks. 

Columbus was flooding because a sizeable river, the Flatrock, cuts through its heart. Two other streams join the Flatrock near downtown. Countless others join up north before its waters ever reach Columbus. 

Maybe this is another workable metaphor for American Christianity.

For 2,000 years now, various streams of thought and philosophies - some small and others significant - have added their waters to Biblical Christianity.

These creeks and streams join forcibly and now the whole river is murky and overflowing its banks. 

And the "river" has become a mile wide and a foot deep.  

Meandering rather than flowing.

And causing damage.

Now, in the midst of the floodwaters, it's difficult to discern the path of the original river.

But you can locate it with some effort - you just have to find where the riverbed is deepest.