There is a beach near my home that I frequent because it’s
relatively unknown to the non-natives. I
probably don’t help the situation as I have often taken friends and family who visit
from out of town to this beach for bonfires and good times. It’s a beautiful setting nestled between two
small cliffs with easy access, a
gorgeous view, and free parking. That’s important.
I recently took a group to visit this beach. The whole time leading up to going, I told them how great of a spot this was, how
quiet it would be, and how there would be more than enough room to accommodate
our group of 40 plus people. I found out
how wrong I was when we arrived. I’d
never seen it this way before, the tide was unexpectedly high, taking out 30
feet beach that was usual there. The
waves were crashing up to edge of the beach, and there was little room on the
small crowded patch of sand we were hoping to claim. I suddenly began defending the
situation. “It’s never like this,” and “we always have room.” But we didn’t.
We would find a small area that we tried to make work so
that we could have our bon fire and sing our songs. To the skim boarders, the situation was
perfect, and entertaining. To the rest
of us, we were busy dodging waves and residue washing up onto the beach which
was claiming more and more of it away
from us. At last we realized we had lost
the fight to stay, when one set of waves came so high, it washed up over
to where we were and took out most of what we had set down, dragging sandals,
instruments, and bags back into the ocean.
Thankfully only shoes were lost to the sea.
It made me realize how unprepared I was for the situation,
and how much I relied on what I thought I knew.
I had been to this beach many times before, but usually late at night, when
the tide was lower. I had not bothered
to look up any information to see if things had shifted. Not unlike my
assumptions of what I knew of the beach that day, we often thrive off what we
think we know of people and ourselves.
We are caught unprepared for what the high tide reveals to us
When the local crowd
gathered to stone the woman caught in adultery, they were hoping to “trap”
Jesus in to saying something that would get him arrested. Instead he spoke right to the heart of the
matter, and they were face to face with their own sin. They were caught. It says in John 8:9 that “When
the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one.” He caught them in their own trap. He made them realize their own sin was right
before them. They had assumed one thing,
but reality brought truth to light. He
uncovered their own sin buried in the sand.
And maybe this isn’t a bad thing. Perhaps we need Christ to bring ‘unexpected tides’
into our lives to challenge the assumptions and bring truth to light in our own
lives, in the places we try to keep hidden. We need these tides to wash up and
reveal what we have buried in our hearts, and held on to for so long. Perhaps his ability to shine light to truth in
our lives will help us deal with that we often push back down back into dark
parts of our soul.
When we allow God to bring light to dark places in our
moments of prayer, in moments we remain in His presence, we risk little in what
God may reveal to us and challenge us to change. It is in the moments we keep hiding, and don’t
deal with our sin, that circumstances, in most unexpected ways, reveal darkness
in the most humbling ways. And this of
our own accord, for we have worked so hard to bury it deep through our sin and
arrogance.
When Jesus found the woman sitting at a well in Samaria, he
found someone broken and wounded. He in
no time spoke right to the situation she was in. But he
didn’t condemn her in the moment. He
did bring her sin, her brokenness to light, he put it before her, and then offered
her hope. In John 4:13 says to her “the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling
up to eternal life.” Eternal life built on the “living water”
found in Christ. Perhaps this ‘living
water’ was the high tide needed to disrupt her life and bring her
redemption. Jesus did just that. Love Eternal broke through her darkest
situations and brought life.
Our fear is not in what tides washing up may reveal, instead
it is in the grace God offers us in our moment we allow ourselves to be vulnerable
before Him. God convicts us of sin to
bring us to redemption. He sheds light
on our circumstances to help us to become who He created us to be. So we should welcome the tides, be honest
with our brokenness, allowing Christ to bring wholeness. We go from unexpected tides, to welcoming them. In doing so, we become
more like Jesus.
