Life's a Beach

This week I've really been experiencing God in some fresh new ways. Last Sunday we had our boot camp leadership training and towards the end of our day we took about 45 minutes, went off somewhere and spent some time with God. I chose a spot by the lake, under a tree. I began this time with a quiet prayer asking God to reveal himself to me in a new way. The words no longer left my heart and my lips, then a wave lapped up onto the shore. Now the logic side of my brain says that there is a "logical explanation" for this encounter, but I calmly told that part of my brain to "shut up" and began to really take in and pour over this God-revelation. As I pondered what happened, I began to think of God as water, and all the attributes of water that correlate to the character of God. After all, Jesus refers to himself as the "Living Water" and Jesus is God, so it doesn't feel like a giant leap.

Yesterday I decided to take some time away and I went to this little beach and just sat on a large piece of driftwood and took in the sights around me. It was a blistery day- wind going crazy and the lake was restless- the waves on the lake were absolutely ridiculous. As I'm watching the lake and the dancing of the waves, I catch a glimpse of several people. There is a small family- just three of them: a husband, wife, and their little son who couldn't have been much older than 2. Dad's sitting on the beach taking everything in- while mom and toddler ease their way towards the boisterous lake. Mom's holding little one's hand and they stop a few feet before the water's edge on visibly wet sand, left that way from a recent wave. Within a few seconds the waves have lapped back towards them and they are now standing in ankle deep water. The little one let's go of moms' hand and runs to the safety of dad's arms.

In the background, behind mom I catch an interesting sight: there are two men standing in waist deep water being beat by the vicious waves. During the course of a few minutes, I saw them running and jumping and playing in the water and in the midst of the frivolities they are being toppled over by the crashing waves. One of them was even washed up on shore by these waves- but he just got right back up and jumped back into the restless water- head first.

Life's a beach- and the water is God and His love. You have a few different kind of people. The beach sitters- they take part in life, maybe they even see God and His love at work, but that's where it stops. They never jump in and take advantage of what God has to offer them. You also have the people who sneak up to where the water is and stand there waiting for it to reach them. Then once it does, you've got the "toddler" who runs away immediately, not allowing themselves to truly understand or experience it. Or- you've got the "mom" who stand up there, ankle deep, not really experiencing the fullness and depth of God's love. Then you've got those intense, crazy people who dive in head first and allow God's love to envelope them. But there's one more kind of person- the one who never even makes it to the beach. The don't truly know God or see the power of His love. So what's your role? Where do you see yourself? What relationship do you have to God and to this beach of a life? I'd love to say that day I ran in- clothes on into the water and allowed God to cover me in the fullness of His love. I would love to tell you that I wrote this after being drenched in freezing cold refreshing water that would only continue to remind me of the "amazingness" of God's love. But I didn't. I sat on the beach, I watched, enjoyed the pleasure of watching the world and these people pass me by.

So I got to thinking- how many times do I do that? Allow life and God to just happen around me, not being a viable participant in my own life? Today during our morning worship service the pastor ironically, talked about worship. And how we need to be engaged in worship. How it's about more that just singing songs, hearing a sermon and walking out the door unchanged. Worship is my opportunity to respond to God and this life He's given me. But how many times do I allow a worship service to go on without me. Sure, I'm there, I'm present, physically- but am I always fully engaged?