OK, so the surf off the South Carolina coast isn't the Bonsai Pipeline. Still, early this morning ten or twelve dudes crawled into the cold Atlantic to hang ten, or whatever it is these guys do for the few seconds they can ride our small waves. Watching them for more than an hour was good mindless entertainment as I savored my robust morning Verona. More than that, it was illustration time for me, a reminder of some spiritual truth a colleague used to talk about all the time.
In the more than an hour that I watched their acrobatics, I never once saw any of them try to make a wave. They didn't command any sea-going vessels, possess any wave machines, or cast any spells over the Atlantic Ocean. There weren't any groupies or roadies beating the surf to shift the currents or move the under-tow in another direction. These cool looking sandlappers floated till the big waves happened and then they rode them, or attempted to, at least. You see, in the genius of creation God set the seas in place, arranged the sun and moon and stars, put the rotation of the earth and all the other planets and solar systems into motion, and orchestrated the movement of the waters so that there would be tides, ebb and flow, waves. So, the SC surfer dudes weren't saddled with the burden of making waves. They rode them. If they didn't they either floated or drowned. And, I don't really think many of them got up that early to go float in the Atlantic, and certainly not to drown.
Here's a lesson, surfers. God makes spiritual waves too. Those of us who serve Him must learn to ride the waves He creates, or suffer the same result as the kids @ Garden City Beach, South Carolina. Trouble is, just floating is really not an option. You see, the currents are strong these days. If you don't ride the waves God creates, you'll either drift away in the tides, or be swept out to sea in the under-tow, then eventually drown. That is not good.
There is a spiritual wave sweeping around the world today. It is the new thing God is continually doing, the thing he promised Isaiah (see Isaiah 43:19), the new wine---fresh, effervescent, alive, bursting the seams of old, worn containers. Some spiritual leaders discern this work of God, and are riding the spiritual wave that God is creating. Others are drifting out to sea, caught in the under-tow of tradition and ritual and religion. Others are drowning.
The Isaiah passage includes a serious question: "...do you not perceive it?" Could it be that God could create such a spiritual wave and some people not see it?
Hmmmm. Think I'll watch the surfers again tomorrow. There may be another lesson in it.