Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Salt

      I remember one time in Florida, I was swimming in the waves just off shore when the undercurrent caught my feet around the same time a wave was lurching up for a big crash. Before I could blink, I was submerged and tumbling wildly in who knows what direction. I could feel my skin scraping the sand and salty bitter water began to invade my nose, throat, and lungs. It was most unpleasant. The worst part? I lost my bathing suit...
       Emotional upheaval is strikingly similar to this experience. We start out in control, managing the waves as they crash around us. Head afloat, we can survey our surroundings and are well aware of our own presence with the waves. Yet suddenly, sometimes within our awareness and sometimes not, this delicate balancing act is violently thrown off. It could be something as small as a negative interaction or as big as a personal loss. Whatever it may be, our mind, bodies, and spirits are sent tumbling with little to no control. By time the initial impact is over, we are left naked on the shore; our lungs gasping for fresh air and our burning eyes stare out over the water in shock.
         When your in that place underneath the waves, where the sand grinds against your skin and the bitterness of the ocean water begins to steal away your air, it seems as if there is no end to the suffering. Drowning becomes a very real and terrifying possibility. Yet any and every wave will instinctively do one thing without fail; reach the shore. The turmoil of a wave will always find it's end at the face of the shoreline. Emotional upheaval is still similar in this behavior. Eventually, the wave of feelings and thoughts will run out of fetch and will come crashing down allowing for a time of awareness and peace as you regain yourself.

I'm not quite to the beach yet today but I look forward to when the salt water in my lungs is gone and I can breathe fresh air again. I can count on that hope like I can count on the waves to always reach shore.

Monday, January 13, 2014

June 25th, 2011 | Diamonds

"I seem to be passing through a refining fire. This season lasted for four years of Oswald Chambers life. How long will it last for me? Will it end at the convenience of my college career? Am I going the right way in my career? How do I navigate this refining fire? I think both Oswald and I would agree that you can't navigate it. If you could navigate and control the refining fire-if you could control that- surely all hope would be lost. The moral is, I am anxious to be a diamond."