The Ocean

I just went on a student leader retreat with LeTourneau, and it was really awesome. I learned a lot about myself and thought a lot about Christian leadership.

So you might be hearing a lot of "nuggets" that ultimately came from that retreat. So here's an interesting one.

You may remember that one time I compared God's love to the ocean. I don't think that I'm the first person to do this. Before I said that wondering if God's love would be enough for you is like wondering if the ocean would be enough water to fill your cup or wash your cloths. Well, to keep up with that analogy, if God is the ocean, then a lot of us are just people standing on the beach.

A lot of people will look at the water and think it's beautiful, and never go in. This is how I would probably be if you ever managed to drag to a beach again. The water is fine where it is, and we really like it, just as long as we don't have to get involved.

Some people will get their feet wet and test the water out a little bit. But they'll feel the undertow pulling at their feet, feel the waves rolling up against their shins, and they'll decide they don't want to go any deeper.

And then there are those who obey the current and rush in with wild abandon.* You can be completely soaked, in over your head, and surrounded entirely by the love of God. Now, I know everyone reading this is thinking "ok I get it, dive in, go in the ocean. Got it."

Well here's the thing. Maybe on my best day, I've been that person who has dove completely into the ocean with reckless abandon. But the thing is, I've climbed back out of the water. Because sadly, I'm a tourist, when I should be a professional scuba diver, and a surfer, and a deep sea fisher, and a navy SEAL, and possibly a sea cucumber.

Because even if you have been completely submerged in the water, you still haven't seen the whole ocean. You haven't explored every nook and cranny. You haven't charted every square inch of ocean floor. Until you have touched every drop of water there is, you don't really know the ocean.

And that's kind of a cool thought. There is a lot more God out there to experience.



*For those of you who were Christians in 1992 and had a tape-deck, this would be the time to think about Steven Curtis Chapman singing "Diving in."