Jellyfish Theology

 “When you move like a jellyfish Rhythm don’t mean nothing

You go with the flow

You don’t stop”     - Jack Johnson

Rhythm is God-given, not acquired.   You either have it or you don’t.  Jellyfish have it.

Virtually motionless without water, a jellyfish moves in cadence by rhythmically opening and closing its bell shaped body.  Apoplectic out of water, when engulfed in the ocean it pulses with the current, creating a ceaseless rhythmic motion with the tide.

So this force exists that provides both momentum and direction to a body that otherwise has neither.  Some sea creatures craftily make their own way regardless of the tide, pursuing the things they want and eating everything in their path.  While others haphazardly swim about, and get eaten.  But the jellyfish, directed and totally consumed by the current, has natural protection when enemies get too close.

It’s curious how human existence parallels sea life in this respect.  What consumes us directs us - and either affords protection and direction, or aimless vulnerability.   We can easily find ourselves off-course or even standing still when driven by the wrong force, but releasing control to the right force propels us and keeps us on track in spite of the movement around us.   This force is modeled throughout creation…we choose to live in it or apart from it.

Post submitted by Diane Cooper, Director of KIT