Growing up my family and I spent many summer vacations in Gulf Shores, Alabama. My grandparents owned a condominium on the beach so we would go and spend a week or so there lying in the sun, building sandcastles on the beach and splashing about in clear blue waters of the Gulf Of Mexico. If you've ever been to the ocean like I have then chances are pretty good that you have seen waves. Tons of them. Big ones. As they crash, these waves shape the sand and dirt that it comes into contact with. They form it, mold it and erode it in whatever way they please. Waves are a pretty interesting occurrence in nature. They are caused by a stirring that often takes place hundreds of miles from the shoreline and they are guided to their destination by the wind and ocean currents. This morning, as my team and I spent some individual time with the Lord next to Lake Atitlan, I was able to observe this phenomenon on a much smaller yet deeper level. Whenever the wind would blow or a boat would go by it would stir up the water causing a wake. As the wake spread out from the source, the waves would gain momentum and get larger. Eventually they would crash against the rocks on the shore but as this happened I noticed that something unexpected occurred. Not only were these rocks slowly being shaped, formed, molded and eroded in their own unique way, they caused smaller waves to be reflected back out into the lake in all directions. As I watched this happen in front of me I realized that this is exactly how the Holy Spirit works! As we walk with Christ and grow in our relationship with Him through reading God's Word, asking Him for guidance and listening to his voice the Holy Spirit slowly shapes us, forms us and molds us into the person that He wants us to be. He causes waves that slowly build up as they come towards us, slowly gaining momentum until they finally reach full speed. When they hit us they come with such force that they erode away those things that are getting in His way. Eventually our desires can do nothing but give way to Him as he begins to stir up more and more of His desires in us. He desires essentially become our desires and as we allow those desires to take over our life He is reflected back out in to the lives of those around us. People begin to notice a change and a desire is sparked in them as the Holy Spirit draws them to know more about the Father.
Waves are force to be reckoned with. Even the smallest one can cause a change but the bigger they are the more impact they have. Consider a tsunami for a moment. These massive waves can reach many miles inland and wreck the lives of everyone in its path. Sometimes it takes a spiritual tsunami in order to get our attention. The Holy Spirit invades our lives and destroys everything that we thought we needed. I feel like God is doing this slowly as I journey through the World Race. I'm realizing that there are things that I thought were important that have been pushed to the back burner or dropped completely. My priorities are changing. I'm finding that when tsunamis like this come it is important to ride them out. By doing this we can better reflect back into the lives of those around us as they learn from our life lessons.
