Lessons from the ocean

I started out wanting to title this post “life is overwhelming – often” but decided noone would read this post.

I can remember as a younger married woman the first time I saw the atlantic ocean. I stood on the shore and was lost in the vastness of the waves and shore. The tide was rising, and soon my feet were feeling the lapping waves. The waves kept coming. I was warned that if I did not move I would soon find myself in deeper water and the concern of being carried away to sea would be a credible threat. So I quickly sought higher ground to avoid the rising tides. As i watched in amazement the spot I had been standing in was quickly engulfed with the rising tide, and the waters were lapping higher and higher. The faint glint of metal caught my eye – i realized that someone had left a beach chair down there, and the tide had caught it and was carrying it out farther and farther…. never to be recovered again.

I have moments when I know this life was the stroll on the beach, the tide was low, my feet sinking into sand and the beauty of God’s creation reminded me of how great god is, and how small I am. Then I have moments where I feel like that beach chair – mistakes made in haste or with wrong motive/or neglect of wisdom have cost me so much. Life crashed in, and has dragged me out into a deep raging torrent that I am not certain how I can get out of.

Then the voice of God shouts “I am with you always”. And I remember the old teaching that whatever we go through has filtered through the hands of God, and has been allowed, not by an angry and cruel god, but by a loving father who wants to develop his image and his character in us.

So the waves a re crashing in, and life feels like I have been swept out to sea, lost forever from what was once familiar. But I am not alone, and there is a purpose for the trials and testing.

Lord, Lead me with strong hands, and hold me when the world crashes in. help me not trust the flood of emotions and fears, but trust you, and your still small voice in the middle of the raging storm. amen

And if you are so inclined to pray i would value your requests to the father that this sense of depression would lift and he would lead me to a new place of refreshment and strength.