During my time in East Tennessee, a friend showed me the beautiful waterfall called Laurel Falls out in Dennis Cove of Carter County.  I returned to it as often as I could showing it to friends, family, and even to the kids in my Youth Group.  One thing that I saw there has always stayed in the back of my mind and was a bit of a mystery to me.

Laurel Falls is about 30 ft. wide if my memory serves me correct.  On times when we had enough rain, the falls would cover the full width.  Friends of mine and I would walk out in it.  I’d lay back against the rock and let the water fall over me, it was awesome.  One time I looked down at my arm to watch the water and I noticed a little bug on me.  The water gushed over it but it stayed right where it was.  I lifted my arm up out of the water and flicked it off, then I began to see more of them.  They were all over the rocks.  I looked at them very closely for a while and saw that they didn’t move much, and when they did, it was only a step or two.  I even tried to push them around a little but the water never carried them away, they were so close to the rocks it had no effect.  In fact, as I watched and experimented like a little kid, it seemed it was the weight of the water that held them in place.  A little bit of research later revealed that they were probably mayflies.  They have gills that protrude from their sides to grab at the oxygen flowing over the falls.

It’s easy for me to see bugs as the bad guy.  If they were cute, cuddly, little baby panda bears, I’d be like, “Ah look at them, so strong, so resilient,” and feel lead to write about perseverance or something.  However, they weren’t cute and cuddly, they were creepy.  So it leads me to think of things that we can’t shake even in times of extreme beauty like Laurel Falls.

These days I think of worship services.  During these times like a waterfall, we can experience such an outpouring of His goodness that we become open to His healing, deliverance, and revelation.  But distractions come in many forms:  from technology- feedback in the mics, to ego- pre-madonna leaders, from temptations- short skirts, to stomach pains- lunchtime, these little bugs stick around and can divert our thoughts sucking out all of the oxygen if we let them.

Colossians 3:2 says for us to, “Set your minds on things above”.  For me in the waterfall, I noticed the bugs but chose to not let them take away from my awesome time in His creation.  I still put my head in the waterfall knowing I may get some in my hair.  I still jumped in the pool below knowing there were probably worse things in there.  I still had a blast and took a good shower when I got home, which in effect lived out Colossians 3:5, putting all those bugs to death.

I loved exploring that waterfall, it was for me a time of worship, little bugs included.  When I kept my mind on why I was there, “on things above”, the fun of the falls was so great I hardly noticed those little oxygen suckers.