[oceans]

Three days ago my small group studied Hebrews 2:1-4, and I am still trying to put into words my thoughts and lessons learned from that. Talking it out usually doesn't work and hasn't, so I shall try my hand at writing.

It was about drifting. Drifting away from the Lord. Either we're pushing on in the grace of the cross or we're drifting away from Him. There is no standing still in faith because the world isn't a quiet lake. It's a raging ocean.

That reminds me of that time I tried surfing once. We were in San Diego learning about tribal missions, and our speaker was also a legit surfer. He took us to the beach in the afternoons, and I learned pretty quick that it is much harder than it looks after getting owned before I even got out into the waves. I'd take two steps forward and the water would push the gigantic surf board and I back one. Then I'd take three steps forward and the waves would push me back two. On and on it went until I finally got beyond the shore, but by then, I was exhausted and simply wanted to float on the board rather than attempt to catch a wave.

Exhaustion. I remember Oswald Chambers wrote about that once. He talked about spiritual exhaustion coming from serving and people relying on you instead of Christ for truth, and man, I feel that this semester. But I like Chambers because he doesn't leave us there feeling sorry for ourselves.

"Has the way in which you have been serving God betrayed you into exhaustion?," Chambers wrote. "If so, then rally your affections. Where did you start the service from? From your own sympathy or from the basis of the Redemption of Jesus Christ? Continually go back to the foundation of your affections and recollect where the source of power is. You have no right to say - 'O Lord, I am so exhausted.' He saved and sanctified you in order to exhaust you. Be exhausted for God, but remember your supply comes from Him. 'All my fresh springs shall be in Thee.'" [My Utmost For His Highest]

And that last sentence is the key of all my rambling don't you think? When God tells us to spend time with Him in the Word, prayer, fellowship, service, He doesn't ever start with a command. It's always an invitation. An invitation to find peace and answers and joy in Him. "Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest." And that is just as comforting as, "Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me."

Because it's not really about working and stressing and plotting and planning and sacrificing for Him. It's listening and responding and doing what He's asked us to do on the basis of the cross. It's seeing our salvation freshly every day. It's doing the things we can do and trusting God to do what only He can do.

Life is an ocean with waves all around us. Satan has plans for our lives just as much as God does, and Satan comes only to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). But the good news is the second part of that verse. "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." [Jesus]

Isn't this exactly what we want? Isn't this what we internally all desire whether we confront it now or on our death bed? To have a full, meaningful life. To be absolutely exhausted for God's glory by the end of our lives. To cross the final finish line of the race with legs that are beyond numb but knowing just one and one good thing - you left everything you were given out there.