Surf’s Up!

As I am laying on my surfboard, waves gently floating me back and forth on the water, sitting right outside the crashing waves, moving out closer to the calm sea. The sun begins to set below the horizon and the waters becomes this liquid gold with a sky full of pink and blue cotton candy. I lay there amazed – amazed by God, His creative beauty, and his love for us. 

 

This is one of my favorite feelings.

 

After a long day of surf, I lay silently on the board, listening to the waves and the water rush underneath me, gently touching the water as I raise up a liquid gold and watch it fall from my fingertips.

 

I have recently fallen in love with surfing, to the point that it feels like I have been reconnected with a long lost love. That there is this part of my heart that has been placed back inside of me. I love every moment of surfing – even the wiping out and getting pummeled by huge crashing waves that give no mercy. It’s combining my favorite things of playing and being on water, and for that moment you glide across the ocean water, it is the most freeing exhilarating feeling (as long as someone doesn’t cross your board, run into you, you hit someone, just fall off or wipe out haha.)

 

It’s freeing.

It’s wild.

It’s remarkable.

 

Surfing takes patience. It takes endurance. It takes willingness. The patience to wait for the perfect wave. Not knowing how long you may have to wait out there for that wave. Endurance to push yourself to paddle faster and harder for more speed for an even more perfect wave experience. Determination to learn, gain knowledge, understand, become wiser, to stand up even when you may get knocked off your board over and over again.

 

Even after the endurance of paddling as hard as you can and catching the wave you didn’t think you could catch, it is the willingness to even try to catch the wave. The determination it took to stand up after the wave picks up your board and you still may fall off. It could be the perfect wave and the perfect timing, but you just may not catch it.

 

It takes balance. The balance of your core to hold you steady while standing and gliding on the waters, the leg strength and balance to move and direct your board, and the arm strength to push yourself out there. Therefore, it takes a lot of strength. Not just physical, but mental and emotional strength. A building of positive thought, encouragement for yourself, and still, after all that, you may get thrown from your board and wrecked by the crashing waves.

 

But you get back up, hop back on your board, paddle back out past the break, paddling hard to get past those crashing waves that are constantly pushing you back. You push forward yet again –  not giving up, not saying no, not paddling back to the safe and sturdy shore of comfortability. 

 

After all of this, you may feel disheartened, weak, tired, embarrassed even, low in faith and stamina, or uncomfortable. But you push back the beating waves that may stand against you, and you push forward yet again.

 

And you wait.

 

You wait for the perfect wave again. 

  

You wait to try again.

 

And why…because it’s worth it.

 

That wonderful feeling of riding upon the waters, drifting on the waves, and riding into the shore – that moment – is unlike any other. It’s something you can’t explain to people. You have to try and see for yourself. And even though, you know there will be more waves, some waves you may catch while many others you may get wrecked by. You know that it’s all worth it.

 

The patience, endurance, determination, willingness, balance, strength, the potential of falling off, those joy-filled moments of being on top of the water is all worth it. That is the ultimate gift and you can see something so much more.

 

The water guides you. It holds back no mercy and with each waver there is a power and force behind it. The waters they guide you, leading you toward the shore, and those waves can rock you in many different ways, the wind can change the outcome of your wave or the course you’re headed, but it guides you to where you need to go. 

 

There are other factors that may come in also. 

 

You may have others steal your wave or hop in on it, people who run into you or just in your way, but that doesn’t stop the waves from coming. It doesn’t stop the opportunity for more waves ahead. It doesn’t stop the beautiful opportunity of the joy in riding upon the waves or the stillness in the waters. 

 

I say all this to say, that surfing I have found, is a lot like life. 

 

It’s a lot like a journey of life or maybe your journey with Jesus.

 

Life with Jesus.

 

You may have to read this again. But maybe these same things from this beautiful sport can be applied to our lives or the different seasons we face.

 

Surfing takes trust. Trusting the board to hold me and to carry me in, trusting the waters below to catch the board, and trusting myself, that I can do it even if I fall. Similarly, I know the grace and rushing waters of God’s love will catch me.

 

Trusting may be a word we wrestle with during this season. Maybe it’s endurance or patience in the waiting. This season has brought up different things for each of us.

 

But I can tell you this. God likes to surf. God is in every part of it. From falling off to riding the best wave into shore, God rides with us and will bring us safely to shore. He’s there to give you the things you need – patience, endurance, resilience, and strength. We just have to trust. Trust that the waves are concurred by His name, He directs our board to shore, He carries us upon the waters with exhilarating joy, and He embraces us in the deep waters of His abundant love, grace, and mercy.

 

Honestly, trust has been a tough one with me this year as I have seen my long-awaited dreams shatter before me. To wait patiently for something but it doesn’t play out how you thought. To trust in God who put something on my heart to see it come through, in whatever way He has. To have endurance when things may have seemed stagnant and stuck in one place. This year has been an emotional wave and lots of plans that were not fulfilled and many waves that crashed against me and throwing me off the board.

 

But here’s the thing though-

 

God is on the move always. 

 

& so am I. 

 

The surf doesn’t stop, the waves don’t stop, the waters are never fully discovered in absolute depth, and people need to know how to surf.

 

I am leaving for Guatemala today for launch round two for the World Race. I will be with a new squad, new countries, and a new team. We will begin our journey in Guatemala and see what God has in store after that. I will be going back out for part of the year this year, many details to come, but please keep me and my new squad in your prayers and we head back onto the field. Praying to share the hope and love of Jesus and NO COVID (many safety regulations and procedures are in place). 

 

As I have had to let go of a dream and the heartbreaking list of what-ifs, I move forward and look ahead to what God has in store for this upcoming year. 

  

Surf’s up, so let’s do this!

 

HUGE HUGS ALWAYS AND MORE UPDATES TO COME!