For the past two weeks our whole squad has been together in Mozambique. We were working with an amazing woman named Mama Rita. She is a widow who lives in the city of Beira and cares for approximately twenty orphan children. For the two weeks we were there, we decided to mix the teams up. The first week I was in a team with Kaleb, Kristin, Erin, and Heather.
On Tuesday morning my team headed into Beira to find a coffee shop or other quiet place where we could spend time with God and refuel for the upcoming ministry. What we got instead was a marvelous afternoon at the beach when our translator for the day led us to a restaurant located right on the beach front. I was able to spend time just sitting on a rock by the water and singing to God. I felt His love for me and His presence all around me. While I was sitting there, the words to a song came to my mind. The first few lines of the chorus go like this:
What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?
Where have I ever stood
But the shore along your ocean?
I began to think about these words, and slowly God brought a picture to my mind. I saw a child sitting on a rock by an ocean tide pool. The child looks down at the tide rushing in and out of the pool and reaches toward the water. Occasionally the water comes up high enough to splash or even thoroughly soak the child, but she is still firmly planted on her rock. The ocean represents God, and the child says over and over, “God, give me more of you. I want more of you.”
Then God speaks to His little girl, saying, “My child, look up.”
For the first time, the child looks up beyond the tide pool and sees the whole ocean stretching out before her, so vast. It invites her to come in and lose herself; to come in and find herself; to go and experience all of the power and love and wonder and mystery of God.
God is right there, offering all of Himself to the child. But first the child must leave behind her rock, where she feels safe and secure. God’s invitation to her is to leave behind the familiar, safe, and comfortable shore and be swept away into His unknown depths.
As I sat and pondered this picture God had given me, He revealed to me that I am the child. So often I say that I want more of God, but I want Him to come to me; I don’t want to have to move from my safe and comfortable place on my rock. It is familiar and feels secure, but God wants so much more for me than comfort and security. He wants me to experience all of Him. To do that – to experience all that He is – I must jump head first into Him with reckless abandon and let Him sweep me away. There are parts of God that are unknown to me and seem unsafe, even dangerous. The God that we serve is not a tame God, but He is good. He is everything I have ever longed for and more. He is the answer to all my questions. He is the One who satisfies my soul.
So now the question remains – where do I want to be? On the shore? Or in the ocean of God?
