Lessons from Key West-Volume 2

I'm staying at the Hyatt Vacation Club, who have an agreement with the Hyatt Hotel, just five blocks away on Front St. in Key West. So I made my way there this morning, a daily ritual for me as a workout fanatic. Just outside the Hyatt lobby, on the way to their small, but well-equipped fitness room, is a turtle pond.

Known for three animal species in particular, Key West is home to many turtles, chickens and roosters (who run wild in the streets), and cats (thanks mostly to Earnest Hemingway, who kept a bevy of them).

The Hyatt has a turtle pond, with a sign that reads, "for your viewing pleasure, do not touch the turtles as they might bite." I laughed, but honored the warning.

There might have been 30 turtles in this concrete, man-made pond. One as large as a "STOP" sign, with others varying in size from a trash-can lid to a hockey puck. There were two wooden bridges jutting up out of the water, and a sand mound for their sunning pleasure. Some were taking advantage of the opportunity to park themselves in the sun, while many just kept swimming...their heads just out of the water, while they floated along the surface.

So, here's my revelation.

The turtles parked on the sand mound or the bridge looked to me like typical turtles...slow, prodding, barely able to lift their heads and almost comatose in their behavior.

However, and I must admit...I've never watched turtles SWIM before, mostly because when I've witnessed them, they are in a surf setting, while these turtles were in a clear pond. These slow-moving, seemingly awkward creatures moved like liquid mercury in the water.

Seemless.

Graceful.

Almost with a sense of purpose, (especially those who swam over to me, assuming I was the next tourist to feed them),

I watched for a good 10 minutes, and it occured to me:

Turtles we assume, are slow-moving, prodding, awkward creatures. Yet, in the water..they are graceful and almost elegant, swimming swiftly and adeptly to the next destination. As I thought about my own life, it occurred to me that as human beings we experience some of the same.

Many of us swim adeptly through some aspects of our lives. I'll use my own example here. It tends to take limited effort for me to practice the ministry to which I have been called. I LOVE youth, their parents, congregational dynamics, etc, and tend to find comfort in helping others navigate life. I can help young people interpret their own emotions, build relationships with significant adult partners and peers, and in some cases, avoid the pitfalls of their young lives.

Yet, In my own life, sometimes like the turtles I watched today, in my own personal life I can be slow-moving, awkward and almost like a "turtle out of water," so to speak.

Is this God's way of keeping us humble?

Is there ever a moment that our peronal and professional lives align in a seamless orchestra of melody and rythym? Mixing metaphors...sorry. I kept thinking all day, funny how God helps us interpret our own challenges in the simplicity of Creation. Thank God for the tortugas!