Do you remember the first time that you saw the ocean? That magical moment when you stood before this massive, beautiful and expansive creation, only knowing what you had been taught about it.
The first time I ever went to the ocean was when I was six years old. We vacationed to South Carolina and all the anticipation to see the ocean grew as we neared the ocean! The drive down from Indiana had me on the edge of our white Dodge Grand Caravan seats’. Upon arriving, we parked at the beach house and without even unloading our luggage, my siblings and I sprinted to the beach front that was about half a mile away. We felt the ocean breeze slowly growing stronger and the roar of the crashing waves reside just over the sand bank.
Once we were met face to face with the unending ocean, nothing in my body hesitated. I TOOK OFF! Fully clothed with no second guessing, I jumped completely in. I was soaked, but I was laughing, splashing and just living life fully in that moment.
I was this excited when I first heard about Jesus too. I had been told about Jesus and heard the stories about what He did. But when I got to come before Him, when I first felt Him for myself, I took off after Jesus with everything inside of me to be completely submerged in His presence.
I have been back to the ocean, but haven’t had the same reaction as that first time. I have been before that massive, expansive, body of water, time and time again and forgotten what it felt like that first time. I walk to the shore line, not running as I once had. I reach that tide rolling in and just let it crash upon my feet and not remember that child who jumped in.
If I am being real, that is what my faith had started to look like. God’s presence is the ocean that I once was fully submerged in. I had become as a regular visiter who comes before His vastness and just gets my feet wet. The tide seems to roll over my feet and gently nudge me to follow the retreading water into the fullness of the ocean. He gives that gentle nudge, but it isn’t overpowering…it is His nature to want more from you, to want more for you!
My late high school years and this past year in college was a, “get your feet wet” type of faith. Not in the way that I was just learning about Jesus and who He was, but more so that I wasn’t submerging myself in all that He had for me.
I got it back. That excitement, that curiosity, that joy. Experiencing all that Jesus has for me each day.
I don’t want to paint a picture that on the race I have only been positive and content, but I will tell you when I don’t spend time with God, days are harder on my own strength.
If you are where I was just two months ago, follow His gentle nudge, and jump in.
