I’m sure you have all seen a poster from the “Endless Summer” documentary- a sunset soaked background with three silhouetted guys carrying surfboards and, in small black writing at the bottom, the words “in search for the perfect wave”. In short, this documentary features professional surfers traveling around the world to find, well, the perfect wave. The guys will come to catch glorious swells, amazing barreling sets, and what seems to be “perfect waves”. However, there is no such thing as perfect in this world we live in. The most “perfect” wave that the guys found was in Port St. Francis in southern Africa. Nowadays, the waves are choppier and don’t break as clean due to human development, rendering them imperfect.
The surfers who embarked on this journey seemingly embarked on an impossible task- to find something that they can consider perfect on this Earth, a feat impossibly reached because there is no such thing as Earthly perfect. The truth is, we have all taken off on this very same journey.
In our lives, we tend to strive for perfection- may that be in homes, careers, appearances, social media, skills, and even spouses. The standard of life seems to be perfection at all costs, meaning we have to work hard and work often to achieve this impossible goal. Usually, in attempts to achieve this, we rely on our own skill and our own judgement to get us there. In other words, we will kick and force our ways through a path in life that we have constructed, only to end up somewhere far from perfect- far from everything we were trying to attain. This is because mankind, humanity, is so imperfect and broken that we can never reach the perfect walk of life on our own.
But, lucky for us, there is a way to follow a perfect path laid out for us. A way through life that was specially constructed for each and every one of us millennia before we were even born. In Jeremiah 29:11, the Lord lays out how His will is the one we want to follow, how His will is the only one that will lead us to prosperity: “For I know the plans I have for you”, declared the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”.
The Lord’s plan that He talks about in Jeremiah is so perfect- the only form of perfect that we will ever find. In order to find this, we must only lean entirely on Him, allow Him to take over our lives, and allow Him to lead our every step. In Luke 9:23, it states, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me”. In this verse, we are called to leave behind ourselves in “search of the perfect wave”, or in search of life through the perfect will of God.
Giving up ourselves may seem like a lot to ask, but just think about the reward. Being able to reach full potential by living out God’s perfect will, feeling the unconditional and never-ending love of our perfect God, and having everlasting life with our perfect savior. So, we can go through life by our own will and our own way and continue the search, or we can abandon ourselves for the will of God, and finally find that “perfect wave”.
