Some Hearts Are Built On a Floodplain

“Some hearts are built on a floodplain”*

A heart any moment swallowed by cool, refreshing water

After months of blazing sun…

But a few hours later 

that same refreshment, a chaotic drowning

Surely something could be built on this piece of earth

this place deemed unreliable... subject to unpredictable disaster 

If someone would see a reward worth the risk. 

And how could they… with raindrops plummeting to earth at a moments notice

and floods with minds of their own, taking captive what they wish

All the hard work done in hopes of permanence - 

flooded again

Lost under a substance we can’t control.

Lost in the midst of a million changing circumstances

And the water is rising

And that feels familiar.

The plunging, plowing through of conditions you thought were fixed

The barely keeping my lips above the water line

I’m getting good at almost drowning. 

These hearts built on the floodplains - 

This chaos is comfortingly, sickly familiar 

But 

the water receding… 

The settling…

What will these hearts be when the raging waters subside? 

How does a heart draw breath in the wake of another devastation? 

The waking up in a familiar bed

Lips touching coffee that tastes the same each day

The “I just drove home and don’t remember driving here”

I crave it and it terrifies me.

I don’t know how to set my clothes in the sun to dry

But I know the floods

"Your favor will fall like rain upon our surrendered lives

May it subdue and take dominion from sea to sea

May he rule from river to rim

Desert nomads bowing at his feet

Overflow.

May the earth overflow with his glory" **

These hearts built on floodplains

Spaces for the overflow to rush in

Take over

Spaces for the wild and rushing 

and the ebb and the flow

// 

*inspired by ”Floodplain” by Sara Groves

*Psalms 72:6-9