All surfers know the painful patience it requires to wait for the waves to come. In the summertime, when the waves only make an appearance for a few days out of the month, more patience is required.
Summer is one of my favorite seasons, it always has been. Even more so now that I surf. The chaos that arrives when a swell hits is magical. Because we've all waited, prayed and woke up every morning waiting for waves since the last swell, we are ready to squeeze every drop out of this new swell.
For 2-5 days, we plan, strategizing which spots to surf when, for how long, to make the most out of it. How much sun can we take? How little water can we drink? How many days can we wake up at 5am in a row? How many hours can we go without food? How many cuts from the reef won't get infected? How many boards can we break? How many injuries can we ignore and push through? Every second of a swell counts.
Now, for those of you who aren't surfers, this may sound ridiculous. After all, for the majority of us, none of this time we're spending practicing this sport is being compensated and never will be. Yet, we take time off work, spend thousands on surf gear, and make it our main goal to catch as many epic waves as possible. Permitting the waves of course.
It is a little silly I guess. It's hard to describe the feeling you have when you're riding a wave and why we are hooked. But I think even for those of you who have never surfed before, you might be able to relate.
I don't know a lot but I have learned that every single one of us hopes and longs for something. We all are praying for something. Not the same thing, but I imagine our prayers of desperation to God for whatever our thing is all sound pretty similar. For surfers, it's waves. For me, it's a job. For others, it's freedom from addiction or a restored family. It's a million different things.
What I want to share with you is a lesson that I learned through surfing, and I'm still learning more each and every time I paddle out. But this particular lesson has to do with chasing waves during swells. We will push ourselves til our body literally demands that we stop. Simply because we've convinced ourselves that we HAVE to chase down every single wave because our next wave might not come for days, weeks, or sometimes even months.
Some surfers will tell you that it's out of obligation to who they are that the do this. It's their passion. But I think even for those of us who call it our passion, it's driven by fear and distrust. We don't trust the ocean to bring us waves when WE want them. We are afraid that without a good wave to surf we will go insane not being able to scratch the itch we all have.
We all do this in life too. We allow ourselves to be engulfed in the things that are going right in our life. As if God isn't going to bring more.
Now, there is a fine line between this and sitting in the present blessings God has given to us, giving thanks. And I don't want it to sound like giving thanks for God's blessings is a bad thing because it's not. It's a beautiful thing. It's a necessary thing.
I guess I think of it like this. When a baby is born, we love that newborn baby. It's a gift from God, a miracle. We thank God for that blessing. But if we hold onto the blessing of that baby as a newborn for too long then we will resent the next part of that babies life, when it learns to walk and talk. We must trust that although God created this beautiful newborn gift, that He is going to continue to bless that baby as it grows.
Or like this, let's say I land my dream job. The job that I've spent years now praying and asking God for. I would be very very very very very thankful and happy. But I don't think landing my dream job is the end of my story, like a fairytale. It's just the beginning. However, I would be devastated if God asked me to leave that job after only 1 year in if I didn't trust that that must mean better things are coming.
Are a baby and a job and waves the same thing? No. I already admitted that I'm still learning every day. But I know that my love continues to grow for my tiny niece and nephew as they get older but my heart also aches for how tiny they were and all the days I missed holding them. And I know that God will bring me the perfect job in time but living as a beach bum on a surf instructor salary is getting a little tiresome. And I get excited for all of the new waves that I haven't surfed yet that a swells brings but I get frustrated when I think of all the waves I've missed that I could've spent preparing.
But I trust God to restore that time with my niece and nephew, so I don't have to mourn those days I missed. And I trust Him to take care of me, job or no job. And I trust Him to bring more waves in His time, so I don't have to beat myself up for all the minutes I've spent typing this that I could've been surfing.
Trust.
Lamentations 3:22-24
Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself,
"The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."
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