On the Water

I have been blessed this week to be with family at the beach.  There is nothing so healing as white sand, blue sky, and a teal, green-blue ocean to calm the nerves and round the corners of an often too edgy gal.  This place is my reset button.

I get quiet at the beach.  Not that we didn’t have tons of fun.  We have. But the water draws me into myself, my circumstances, my dreams that still beckon and tease and keep me hopeful despite some surly, big stops and starts. 

I am able to see at the sea.   Promise and possibility coexist with disappointment and difficulty, and somehow I can find the perspective I need to do a little emotional and mental sand sifting.  I always leave here a little bit different than when I arrive.

I’ve heard it said that one teaches the very thing they want most to learn for themselves.  I believe this is true.  Perhaps this is why I take up space each week to draw upon the canvas of faith, arranging images against the backdrop of everyday life.  I want to prove — as much to myself as to others — that God is in everything.   He’s in control even when we can’t understand His ways.  

I’ve come to understand that faith is like the tide.  Ebb and flow… ebb and flow….ebb and flow… 

There are times when it is strong, rushing in, bold and unstoppable.  All is going well. We are loved, we are whole. We can point to things all around us to substantiate its mighty power.  We feel buoyed by grace, blessed and fortified.  We sense that we have Him figured out. That as long as we are in the Faith Zone, nothing bad can happen to us.

And then it does. 

The clouds hide the sun, the current changes, and the sea gets rough. We find ourselves thrashing about, panicking, treading water… We are desperate for evidence, not only that He exists, but that He knows us and all that we must contend with.  We feel lost, abandoned even.  Shipwrecked.

These are the times when we simply don’t understand how a loving God could let us drift, carried away by a riptide of troubles.  We want to see Him move and show us the way out.  All we are trying to do is follow Him, but nothing about our circumstances seem to change.  The wind has left our sails and we feel empty of everything to propel us forward.

Ebb and flow…ebb and flow… ebb and flow… In time, it all flows back again. 

I wish I understood how the moon affects the tide. My mind just can’t comprehend it. But not being able to understand it, doesn’t mean it’s not doing what it will.  I can’t explain a lot of things.  But I sense that there is a purpose and incredulity in all that God does that is only for Him to know and us to discover as we go. 

We have to trust Him even when our faith is at low tide. 

God is the Master of the Universe.   He designed life and all that is in it with two sides  — birth and death, good and evil, night and day… high tide and low.  People come and go. Feelings and provision and even love, wax and wane, ebb and flow — and somewhere in the middle we live. 

The only constant is God.  He loves us, holds us, heals us… He wants us to know that He will never leave us, even on our cloudy, rainy days — and most especially then. 

He’s there, on both sides of life.  

When we beg for proof, He sends a rainbow, a sunset, beautiful shells along the shore at twilight. 

He’s always trying to tell us something and He will walk on the water to do it.

Believe in Me… I’m here… I love you… Your better days are still ahead…I have a plan…I know it hurts…

If your faith is running low, hold on.   Keep your eyes on the horizon.

High tide will come again soon.

It always does.