If you missed my obnoxious set of (six) pictures on Instagram the other day, you missed some true GEMS of me weighed down in snorkeling equipment attempting to navigate the great seas.
See, it all started when I had a break down in Nicaragua about the fact that I didn’t want to be at the beach on our day off because I really wasn’t a huge ocean fan. And then God set us up in a real nice beach town in the Philippines, complete with a mere 5-minute walk to the most beautiful secluded beach EVER. And then I had 3 teammates wanting to scuba dive. And then somewhere along the line we were all scuba diving. Listen, I don’t remember all the details, I just know somehow I said yes.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be 40ft. below the ocean surface chasing sea turtles, feeding fish bigger than my head, and trying not to bump into beautiful coral. At the beginning of the month I was all about mountains and nothing about the deep scary sea, and now I’m married to the bottom of the ocean and singing ‘let’s scuba dive once a week’.
On our first dive I was one of the first people to reach the bottom of the ocean, so I had a little time to diddle-dawdle. There was this fish, about the size of my hand, hanging out near my feet- it was a pearly-white but it had bright fuchsia, lime green, purple, and blue on it, like splattered paint. I was mesmerized by it.
And the fact that God created it!
Individually, specifically, uniquely.
That He said this is good, this is beautiful, and I want to give it life.
It’s NUTS that that little guy lives in the ocean- a place a majority of people never venture that far into.
I spent the rest of that dive and the one after it completely in awe of the life and the beauty the Lord created in the depths of the sea.
Things of every color and size,
fish bigger than my head and flatter than a pancake,
sea turtles that reminded me of Finding Nemo,
coral that lived and moved and housed little fish,
a gaping emptiness of deep blue to my right.
And you know, God’s not the kind of guy that’s going to let this kind of experience go by without a good lesson or two tacked on. He’s way more intricate and detail oriented than that.
So He showed me our relationship, with Him as the Sea.
People stay at the beach because they like the view, they like the atmosphere of comfort, the pretty sunsets. They wade in, they snorkel. They stay on boats because then they’re in the water but not IN the water. They can catch some fish, watch some dolphins, feel the waves move, and call it a day.
And God sees the beauty in that. At first.
But sooner rather than later, the beach doesn’t cut it anymore.
Sooner rather than later, more is asked of us, the depths of the Sea cry out for us to wade in.
And most of the time we are left standing petrified on the shoreline, crippled and confused. Because the depths are different, unknown, and vast beyond measure.
Here’s the thing: if we could get past that debilitating fear, if we would just take the risk of diving deeper into who God is, going to the hard places of faith, the daunting places of obedience, we would see the most beautiful things we could never imagine.
And maybe sometimes we’ll have a hard time breathing because the new things He’s teaching us haven’t quite settled in and maybe sometimes it takes a while to get a grasp on how to operate in a new, even foreign place, but can I let you in on a secret?
It’s worth it to see that small, beautiful fish with lime and fuchsia and blue splattered all across it.
It’s worth the intimidating process of getting to the bottom, to look around and realize you’re breathing underwater, weightless and alive.
So, what are you waiting for?!
Jump out of the boat!
Swim away from the safety net of the shore!
I’ve quoted it a time or two before and I’ll quote it a million more if it fits:
It’s better in the water with Jesus than on the boat without Him.
