It's called an "oxbow." Notice the shape of the river flowing through this beautiful scene that I saw yesterday and blogged about. See the meandering of the river, creating what is called, an oxbow effect. It's named that due to the river carving out a shape similar to that of the curves of an oxen yoke.I texted this picture to a friend of mine back east and he immediately saw it and said, "An Oxbow. Amazing how you can travel so far on a river only to wind up just a few hundred yards downstream by foot."Isn't that true in life. We can travel so very far through the years, yet make so little progress it seems. After all we go through in life, only to find we're just a few feet from where we started.I can easily imagine the oxbow effect on the early disciples who tried to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, yet kept stumbling back through the same issues of pride, power struggles and not really getting Jesus' intent at all after multiple times of hearing him and watching him. Aren't we really like those early followers---people who just can't seem to get what Jesus is up to in our life and we keep coming back to learn, re-learn and learn again the most basic principles of the spiritual life: I am the Beloved. Trust God. Lean on him not my own understanding and so much more.Stephen W. SmithPotter's InnAre you in an Oxbow place in your life? How can you move on through to greater and deeper realities of the spiritual life
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