The Keeper of the Stream

One of my favorite stories by the late Dr. Peter Marshall, former Chaplain of the United States Senate, is about the “Keeper of the Stream.”  This story is about an old man who lived in an Alpine forest high above a small Austrian village. This man had been hired by the town council to clear away the rubbish from the pools of water up in the mountains that fed the stream that flowed through their town. With faithful regularity, the keeper of the stream moved along the hill slopes and ravines removing leaves, branches and accumulated silt that could contaminate the fresh flow of water. Truly, because the town possessed such a beautiful clear stream, it became a popular attraction for tourists from all over the world.

Years passed and one evening the town council met for its annual meeting. As the council members looked over the budget, one council member began to question the salary being paid to this obscure keeper of the stream. He questioned why they kept the old man year after year. Because of this council member's persistence and a general mood for austerity, the council members voted to cut the old man’s services from the budget and tell him he was no longer needed. Now for several weeks nothing happened, and the members of the town council congratulated themselves on their savings for taxpayers. By early fall though, the trees began to shed their leaves. Small branches snapped off and fell into the pools, impeding the flow of water. Rollicking rapids with sprays of whitewater became stagnant pools. One afternoon someone noticed a slightly yellowish tint in the town water. Within a few weeks, a slimy film covered sections of the water along the banks and a foul odor was detected. Tourists to the little town soon left and many of the residents became sick. The town council was forced to call a special meeting. Realizing their error, they quickly amended the budget and rehired the keeper of the stream. Within a few weeks the stream cleared and the little town returned to normal.

As we take stock of our own lives, we need to review our spiritual budget. Have we made cuts to portions that may have profound implications for our lives? These cuts may not seem to matter much at all in the scheme of our busy lives. We may have cut out devotional time, or church attendance, or just a time for solitary reflection during a daily walk. However, all these moments serve to purge our souls of the spiritual detritus that is constantly building up. Soon our spiritual stream will become so clogged that we will have great difficulty in communicating with the Supreme Keeper of the Moral Stream. The only remedy is never to be this austere in our spiritual budgeting. We always need a Keeper to clean up the moral stream in our own lives so that we can remain God’s chosen vessels, through which His rich blessings will flow to those around us. 

Le gardien du ruisseau

Une de mes histoires préférées par le regretté Dr Peter Marshall, ancien aumônier du Sénat des États-Unis, est sur le "Gardien de la rivière." Cette histoire est un vieil homme qui vivait dans une forêt alpine au-dessus d'un petit village autrichien . Cet homme avait été embauché par le conseil municipal pour déblayer les décombres des flaques d'eau dans les montagnes qui l'ont nourri le ruisseau qui coulait à travers leur ville. Avec une régularité fidèle, le gardien du flux déplacé le long des pentes des collines et ravins enlever les feuilles, les branches et le limon accumulé qui pourraient contaminer l'écoulement de l'eau fraîche. En vérité, parce que la ville possédait un tel beau ruisseau clair, il est devenu une attraction populaire pour les touristes de partout dans le monde.
Les années passèrent et, un soir, le conseil municipal a tenu sa réunion annuelle. Comme les membres du conseil ont examiné sur le budget, un membre du conseil a commencé à remettre en question le salaire étant versé à ce gardien obscure de la rivière. Il a demandé pourquoi ils ont gardé la vieille année de l'homme après année. En raison de sa persistance et une ambiance générale à l'austérité, les membres du conseil ont voté pour couper les services du vieil homme sur le budget et lui dire qu'il n'était plus nécessaire. Maintenant, pendant plusieurs semaines rien ne s'était passé, et les membres du conseil municipal se félicita de leurs économies pour les contribuables. Au début de l'automne cependant, les arbres commencent à perdre leurs feuilles. Les petites branches cassé net et sont tombés dans les piscines, ce qui empêche l'écoulement de l'eau. Rollicking rapides avec des pulvérisations d'eau vive est devenu mares stagnantes. Un après-midi quelqu'un a remarqué une teinte légèrement jaunâtre dans l'eau de ville. Dans quelques semaines, un film visqueux couvert sections de l'eau le long des berges et une odeur nauséabonde a été détectée. Touristes dans la petite ville bientôt gauche et de nombreux habitants sont tombés malades. Le conseil municipal a été contraint de convoquer une assemblée extraordinaire. Réalisant leur erreur, ils ont rapidement modifié le budget et réembauchés le gardien du flux. En quelques semaines, le flux effacée et la petite ville est revenu à la normale.Comme nous faisons le bilan de nos propres vies, nous devons revoir notre budget spirituelle. Avons-nous fait des coupures à des parties qui pourraient avoir de profondes répercussions sur nos vies? Ces réductions peuvent ne pas sembler beaucoup d'importance à tous dans le régime de nos vies trépidantes. Nous avons peut-être découper le temps de dévotion, ou la fréquentation des églises, ou tout simplement un moment de réflexion solitaire au cours d'une promenade quotidienne. Cependant, tous ces moments servent à purger nos âmes des détritus spirituelle qui est constamment s'accumule. Bientôt, notre flux spirituel deviendra si bouché que nous aurons beaucoup de mal à communiquer avec le gardien suprême du ruisseau moral. Le seul remède est de ne jamais être cette austère dans notre budget spirituelle. Nous avons toujours besoin d'un gardien pour nettoyer le flux moral dans nos propres vies afin que nous puissions rester les vaisseaux élu de Dieu, à travers laquelle ses riches bénédictions iront à ceux qui nous entourent.

One of the important "faith questions" we chaplains often hear is: "Has anyone ever seen God?" If in your faith journey you have asked this question, you are not alone. People have asked this question as long as there have been people to ask. One boy I know asked this question in a very direct way- "Has anyone seen God, like I'm looking at and seeing you as we speak?"  I had to admit that I didn’t know anyone who had. In fact even John, the evangelist, admitted as much. In his gospel he writes, "No one has ever seen God" (John 1:18). Indeed, you can make the case that God is expecting a lot from us - to go on believing while at the same time knowing there is little possibility of seeing God this side of the grave. But if God were completely and absolutely hidden from us, belief in God would probably be humanly impossible. I would submit though that God really has given us some clues about His presence. First, there is the Bible, which is the main source of what Christians believe about God. Indeed, year after year, the Bible continues to be the number one selling book, so it is clear men and women are not losing their passion for learning about God. Assuredly, the Bible is only one of the ways God makes his presence known to us. Nature has always been another important indicator and proof of God's presence and majesty. The beauty of nature speaks profoundly of the providence and goodness of God. A Dominican sister that I know says, "there is no shortage of wonders around us, but only a shortage of wonderers." Then there is the story of Edith Stein, a German Jew who had been an atheist in her teenage years, but who later turned to Christianity. Edith became a nun and later died in a German concentration camp. Her heroic example led to her canonization as a saint. In one account she was asked by a young lady, "When shall I see God?" Edith answered simply, "When you open your eyes!" Indeed, I guess we too easily overlook the chance of seeing God in the most obvious place of all - in our fellow human beings. The Book of Genesis clearly says God made the first man and woman in His image. Truly, of all of God's creation, humans are able to reflect God more than anything else. Of course, we are only too aware that humans are not the perfect image of God. There is so much hate and selfishness in the world to show that we are often a murky image.   What if we truly focused on a good image? Most of us have heard the story of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who lived in hiding in Nazi occupied Holland during World War II. Living in fear in the attic of a Dutch family for most of the war years, she kept a personal diary. We might expect that her diary would contain a lot of hatred for the Nazis who were the cause of her suffering and misery. Instead she wrote, "In spite of everything, I still think that people are good at heart." Maybe if we could see with Anne Frank’s eyes, we could truly say we have seen God. .