You Can Always Find a River

America, the broad and beautiful land that flows from sea to shining sea, has been explored broadly. Perhaps there are still some pristine areas that have not seen the eyes of mankind, but they are surely few and far between. The exploration of the North American continent was, of necessity done by following the rivers that flow through the plains and the mountains.
Rivers provide far more than just a cool place. They provide both water and life sustaining food sources that are usually predictable. Lewis and Clarke would stick with rivers as much as they could on their magnificent journey westward. Spanish explorers that preceded Lewis and Clarke would also follow this safe pattern of exploration.
Finding a river proved to be the essential item of long term success in the exploration of the natural world, by large. The pattern for finding a river was to go to the lowest point and there a river should be. Sometimes there were rapids, other times a small stream that hardly constituted a river, but the life giving waters of the rivers called to the explorer.
As time has moved on, better systems have developed in obtaining water for consumption, and yet there still is a cry for a river in all of us.
Rivers never flow on the top of a mountain. Their domain is in the valley. It is in the depressions of the earth that the swelling sounds of the life giving river flows. It was in the valley of Elah where David knelt down and chose five smooth stones.
He would record a bit later in Psalm 46 that “there is a river, the streams thereof shall make glad. . .”
The hard part of a river is that you have to go to the bottom of the valley, or across a broad, open plain to get to the flow. Often, we find ourselves despairing over the valley, but the river is deep and needful.
Just an observation in our Christian walk: wells are good, but they are for those that have settled. I am sure that settling is not what Christian had in his mind on his way to the Celestial City. It takes a river that moves to keep you alive.
Finding this river can be challenging, but you can always find a river. In fact, when you need it the most, at your most desperate hour, that is where you are likely to find it. It is in the exposure of the broad open fields that a river will be found. It is in the recesses of the dark valley that you will hear the rush of the river.
The rivers of America are becoming more and more polluted by the trashing of them. There is a movement afoot that is trying to clean them up.
There was river that welled up back a couple of thousand years ago, from the place of His darkest hour. It has washed away many sins, and yet it is still as pure as it can be. This river started and has never stopped flowing.

There Is a River

There is a river that washes you clean

There is a tree that marks the places you've been

Blood that was spilled, although not your own,

For all of your tears, are the wages for things you have done

And all of those nights

Spent alone in the darkness of your mind

Give it up, Let go

These are things you were never meant to shoulder

There is a river that washes you clean

There is a tree that marks the places you've been

Blood that was spilled, although not your own

For all of those tears, love will atone

So, give up the right

To control the waves that empty out your life

Above wild skies

Are the rays that break the shadows we design

Give it up, let go

These are things you were never meant to shoulder

Give it up, let go

There is a river that washes you clean

There is a tree that marks the places you've been

Blood that was spilled, although not your own

For all of those things, love will atone

For all of those nights, that you cried all alone

All of your tears, love will atone
Written by Dan Haseltine, Charlie Lowell, Stephen Mason and Matt Odmark