With all the emphasis on the moon this week—Russia’s unmanned crash landing, India’s successful one, and Japan’s lunar launch this weekend—I learned a new term: tidal lock. (Maybe I should have known it already, but it’s not in my general orbit 😜).
“Tidal locking results in the Moon rotating about its axis in about the same time it takes to orbit Earth. Except for libration, this results in the Moon keeping the same face turned toward Earth….”[1]
What piqued my interest, especially since I have a Christian worldview, was how the moon kept its same face towards the earth, though moving daily; even routinely rotating, we still only see the same thing.
It made me ask myself if I was in a spiritual tidal lock.
You know, content in my routine yet never showing anything but the same “face.” No growth, change, mistakes, triumphs, just faithfully circling my day—justified by movement, but with nothing new to share.
Sure, there are benefits to being steadfast, but not to the exclusion of becoming robotic.
I think of all the varied “faces” the disciples witnessed from Jesus, which ultimately brought a deeper relationship with the Son of Man. To be like Him and develop more profound relationships, I need the same internal security to show my various “faces” without compromising my witness. I can’t be locked into moving for the sake of moving with nothing new to offer, but that movement must be a catalyst for personal growth.
After all, Jesus called his disciples friends, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15 ESV). And that designation necessitates growing, sharing, and transparency. It's taking the keys of the kingdom, that which we have freely been given, to unlock any spiritual tidal lock and freely give!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking
Photo by Joydeep Sensarma on Unsplash