Dancing on the Waves

Life sure has a way of shifting the ground underneath your feet.  There is so much change; expected and unexpected.  There are moments of deep sadness and grief and we feel we will not survive it, then just as the tide turns, in the morning we find joy and laughter and healing.  We lose jobs, we find them.  There is death and there is life.  There is weeping and there is dancing.  We are creatures of habit; both good and bad. We resist change; especially when it means that something once secure is now being disturbed, tested, shaken.  The calm waters begin to move and the current is strong; threatening to pull you out to sea where the ground disappears beneath you and there is a vast unknown expanse ahead of you.  

I've been away these last few days, alone, to pray, think, read - getaway with Jesus.  Every morning and evening I would sit on the dock of the bay and watch the waters pass by.  With it, life teeming within it's ebb and flow.  Dolphins, manatees, sea snakes, birds, fish, boats and jet skiis.  Each morning it would head in one direction and in the evening return, back from where it started.  

I remarked to my mother as I sent her a picture, "It never gets old." 
She said, "No.  It does not.  It's always changing."  

The ebb and flow.  The coming and going out again of the ocean waters.  Into the bay and back out into the ocean once again.  The direction changing with the rising of the sun and in its setting.  You cannot touch that same water twice because when it returns it is different.  What passes you by will not return the same.  Seems unsettling.  Uncertain.  Not to be trusted.  

But wasn't this God's design?  
Morning and evening.  Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.  The beginning of life and the winter of death.  A constant change.

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

But in the ebb and flow of change.  
I hear the Lord say, nevertheless, I am the Lord and I do not change.  
Underneath our feet, a rock, unchanging, unmoving. 
Steadfast. 
Secure.  

I had a friend who was given a vision of me, sitting just at the edge of ocean, building a sandcastle.  Without worry or concern.
She said she saw the Lord call me to come out into the water and with great hesitation I responded but would step only where I could firmly plant my feet on the rocks I could find beneath the water.  He called me deeper still.  With every step I took, He retreated further out, where the shore began to disappear from our sight and there were no more rocks to be found.  Just as sure as that tide turns, the wind began to howl, and the waves began to swell.  

This is where He calls us.  
Beyond the shore.  
Where the ground is shifting sand and the change of the tide threatens to pull us out further.  
Nothing is familiar.  Nothing is secure.  But in the midst of it all, a Rock beneath our feet even still.  
It cannot be moved by the fiercest wave.  

You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep my faith will stand

And I will call upon Your Name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You've never failed and You won't start now
(Oceans by Hillsong)  

Yes, Spirit, lead me where my faith has no borders.
Where there are no limits my Trust.
Can I trust even when everything seems uncertain and ever-changing?  
Yes, the answer is a resounding YES!  .....Because the wind and the waves still have to obey His voice.  
He is the author and creator and He is sovereign and there is nothing that passes by in the ebb and flow that Has not passed through His hands first.   Let us Trust that He has our feet as the tide goes out once again and threatens to pull us out into the expanse of the unknown.  Let us rest in this one thing alone, He's holding us.  He, who was BEFORE time and will be even after time cannot be shaken.  He knows what has been, and He knows what will be.  He is actively moving heaven and earth on your behalf bringing everything together for your good and His glory.  

Let the seasons change.  
Embrace every moment.  
Whether it is to weep or to rejoice.  
To embrace or to let go.  
To celebrate or grieve.  
Because this is His promise to you.  
He is the Lord.  He does NOT change.  
And He will continue to bring about every GOOD thing He promised for you long ago.  
Your feet are secure and so is your future.  

Not too long after my husband died, I sat alone with my Bible and my thoughts.  I had so many questions.  Such an unknown future ahead for me and my children.  So much fear.  I looked up from my Bible and saw a vision of Jesus across the room from me. 
I could have handed Him a cup of coffee. 
I'm pretty sure He drinks coffee.
There with my tightly clenched fists of control, I heard Him speak so gently,
 "Are you ready to trust me now?"  

With those words, every bit of fear, anxiety and control melted away.  
With my open and empty hands, I knew then and even still, HE CAN BE TRUSTED.  
I don't have to know the outcome, I don't have to have the answers.  
As long as He is Lord over my life, I can trust that He will make it good.  

As long as He is Lord over yours?  You can trust He will make it good.  
If it's not good, then He's not done.

 For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for
peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.  Jeremiah 29:11