Confluences

Several years ago I went on several amazing fishing trips to Alaska with some friends. We fished on many different rivers, but the place that produced more consistently than any other was a place known to us only as "the confluence". Confluence is a really good word. It refers to the place where two rivers come together and one larger river continues. It can be messy at a confluence because the momentum of two distinct currents of water come crashing into each other, causing turbulence. With the turbulence, a lot of mud and debris gets kicked up and the water isn't usually very pretty for some distance until the newer, wider and more powerful river current settles down and goes about its unending task of delivering the contents of the rivers to the ocean.
The turbulence caused by the confluence of two rivers does more than stir up mud and debris. It stirs up underwater bugs, sculpins and minnows and exposes them as food for the fish of the river. The fish will accumulate just below the turbulence, instinctively knowing that food is coming their way. The fish understand that the messy and turbulent places are places of great opportunity. So out in the seeming middle of nowhere is a busy intersection where life and death activities are carried out. There is no reason for the fish to stay in the clear quiet pools for more than a brief rest because the food is at the confluence.
We encounter confluences in the spiritual realm as well; places where the streams of the world and its pursuits comes crashing together with streams of Christ-centered lives. It is in those messy interchanges of life where we find people who are most hungry and who are actively looking for answers. The quiet pools of life don't offer the opportunities to share the gospel in the way that the turbulent confluences do. We can't wait in the beautiful, quiet places if we wish to encounter people who are looking for answers. We must position ourselves in the turbulent, murky places if we want to find those who are truly hungry.
These confluences occur at work, in neighborhoods, and in the marketplace. They happen at tables and in cars. They happen in living rooms and driveways. They happen in the aftermath of disaster. They happen in bad parts of town. That's where we need to be if we want to live Christianly and share our faith. Confluences are opportunities. They are rarely appointments.