As we have every year we begin Plunge by diving back into the healing waters that flow from the Temple. Take time to reread the passage in Ezekeil. If you have never read it before, get ready. It is an amzing visual for the purpose of the church and the basis for my ministry! ~ Ezekiel 47:1-12

This past Sunday night I lost my wedding ring. Not a suprise, since I have lost it once  a month since I married Meg seven years ago. But this time I did not find the ring after twenty minutes. Instead, after all my searching, I left the house on Monday without my ring. And the feeling of the missing ring hung over me. It was not as bad as the nightmare where you go to school naked, but it was like that. Like maybe if you forgot to wear underwear. All day you would feel uncomfortable. And like that example, no one noticed my missing ring. But I felt the loss the whole day and every moment I kicked myself for my lack of organization…

The purpose of my ring is to signify my marriage to Megan. Of course, without the ring nothing changed. We were still married, still in love. But I was no longer marked as hers. For that matter my lack of a ring designated me as single to those who did not know…

We often approach the world as though we are available. We consider their offers and take what is pleasing. But in reality, Christians are not single. We should exit the church wearing the ring of Christ. Not a literal ring, nor for that matter a cross necklace. But our life, our actions should be marked by the purposes of Jesus. We should not seek the approval of others, but the approval of the one we claim to serve.

The river of life does not flow into the Temple in the passage from Ezekiel. Instead the river flows away from the Temple, into the world. The world considered dark and lost. In the same way the church so not be pulling inward, but pressing outward. On mission for God, marked by the living waters. Marked as the bride of Christ!