Some Go Down To The Sea

Desired Wave Haven

I just returned from a phenomenal women's beach retreat in Cherry Grove & N. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  The waves were faithfully relentless in performing their job.  In and out, rhythm and force, splash and crash, gleaming and foaming, they were wonderfully inspiring.  God always speaks through His waves. 

Waves of emotions.

We're taught to control our emotions so that we always appear rational, but sometimes we habitually stuff true feelings down into the pit of our hearts so much that our rational appearance becomes idolatry.  Identity based on appearance leads us down the path of p-r-i-d-e and that is a sure-recipe for all levels of spiritual and relational disaster.  I'm not saying to become a raging, emotional volcano or to be immature, but if you are reading this, then you are probably still walking the earth in a flesh and blood body.  Emotions are healthy human responses.  God doesn't deny that His intention is that we be whole, healthy human beings in body, soul and spirit; that includes healthy thoughts and emotions.  How we "frame" our thoughts - what we allow to "flesh-out" and become reality - will be vital factors in our becoming more like Jesus and living that mission out in front of others.  

Proverbs 23:7a  "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he..."

Doctors tell us to pay attention to what our body is telling us - what little red flags is it sending up to signal that something needs adjusted or corrected?  Listening to the emotional aspect of our lives is just as important.  Do those same waves drift up to the surface of your heart and mind?  We thought those waves had passed a long time ago.  Do you hear an emotional pain crying out for attention and pleading for a healing balm?  

Is God saying, "Something is not in order, attend to it!"

The Lord spoke a word to me several years ago.  Literally, one word.  The word was "groundswell."  It was a curiosity to me because I had dreamed about being devastated by a huge tidal wave that literally had a menacing personality and was threateningly full of "body language."  It seemed to look at me and chase me down.  Not long after the dream our family faced a dark night season and the menace of that wave hung over us like a fog.  We all had opportunity to soul search and allow our personal groundswell-tidal wave to do its business with our emotions.  Getting to the root, the seat of our hearts, we determined that we would hold on through the storm, but watching the deep heart-dredging was painful.  It was soul surgery that seemed painfully grief filled but so necessary for healing and going forward.  Emotions bubbled up over and over again as the Lord's groundswell waves dealt with the deep "ocean floor" of our hearts, dredging and dealing and delivering.  He reminded us that He had made man's heart bigger than the wide sea and He was Master of the waves on it.  

Psalm 107:23--30  "Some go down to the sea and travel over it in ships to do business in great waters;  These see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.  For He commands and raises up the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea.  [Those aboard] mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the deeps; their courage melts away because of their plight.  They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits’ end [all their wisdom has come to nothing]. Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses.

He hushes the storm to a calm and to a gentle whisper, so that the waves of the sea are still.

Then the men are glad because of the calm, and He brings them to their desired haven."

Can you feel the emotional stirring of the waters?  Do you see a great groundswell wave rising over the horizon and targeting your heart?  Does the Spirit of God need to "do business" with your heart?  Do you hear your emotions crying for healing attention...again?

The Lord's final say so in these matters is that He has a desired haven for you.  The groundswell that rises up because of the silent, deep, ever resident stirring can have a beautiful outcome of release from the old hurts; wholeness and emotionally healthy spirituality are your's (and mine.) There is hope in the face of the groundswell waves.

Hold On!

Hold on ~ photo credit:  Jake Schnake

When the mountains are in front of you, don't let go, don't give up, don't despair, keep going; even if you feel like you're going at a turtle's pace, determine that you won't stop - tell yourself, "At least I'm still going forward!"  

A friend encouraged me years ago with, "If there's still a pulse, you still have a purpose."

The decision to go through major surgery came just after we moved twenty-seven years worth of business collateral out of our leased suite, which occurred just after we sold our family business, which occurred just after we returned from our son's amazing wedding, which occurred just after my rock-of-the-family mother-in-law "graduated" to be with Jesus, which happened just after my close friend's husband also "graduated."  

The recovery time was a season to really reflect tremendously; to revisit places in my soul with the Lord that I had skimmed over during my fly-time as a business co-owner all those years.  I re-invested my heart in the fearsome dream of committing my thoughts onto the typed and written page.  Oh, how my patient husband has encouraged this activity through the years, never losing confidence in me and he would never let me let go!  (I'm sure God has a special crown awaiting him.)  He is my belay partner.  (OK, I have to be transparent before my son and daughter-in-law bust me for pretending to know what I'm talking about!)

I can now empathize, to a small degree, with what my husband's Mom went through in the long nights of waking up and trying not to disturb your spouse's sleep.  Lying there, asking God for the strength and grace to hold on.  She climbed to the very top of the very last mountain that her earthly destiny called her to.  God gave her "hinds feet to walk upon her high places."  
      
"The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make      me to walk upon mine high places."  Habakkuk 3:19

I echoed her favorite encouragement verse over and over again, "I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me."  Philippians 4:13

I'm now praying with my sister and the rest of my family as my bold-hearted brother-in-law fights through the mountains and valleys of cancer in his body.  He is a determined man of faith who is holding on to his Father God's hand and climbing with sure-footed hope of God's best plan being accomplished.  Please join us in prayer for his health and strength.

Waiting in hope.  That is really a place where the fire in our impatient souls is stoked.  It can feel like you are hanging onto the sheer side of a mountain without a rope.  (By now you know that I have never done this in the natural realm - you guys are figuring me out, yes.) 
Nevertheless, it is just as real emotionally and spiritually.  In that place, the Holy Spirit, our ever-present Teacher, is weaving the substance of faith even stronger inside our hearts and He is perfectly recalibrating our spiritual vision and saying, "Open your eyes now that you have climbed higher, a little closer to your Father's perspective."  He seems to massage His amazing grace into our weary hearts like oil until we have assurance that we can continue to wait for God's good outcome. 

Be determined to hold on until you have the assurance that you will see His best be accomplished for you, His purposes manifested.  Hold on and be convinced that God has been doing something good for your benefit, and He has been working, even if in secret, all along the way up your mountain.

After months of being at home, missing my church family, but abundantly blessed by the nurturing care of my natural family, we finally climbed up the Blue Ridge to Harvest House Church in Boone.  That first day back, I was blessed as a few wonderful "sisters in the Lord" performed a powerful choreography with banners and signed the words to the following song just for me.  The climb up my mountains is training my hands for the battles and training my hinds feet to hold with hope in the ascents.  

(From:  Bethel Music / It Is Well lyrics)
Far be it from me to not believe
Even when my eyes can't see

And this mountain that's in front of me
Will be thrown into the midst of the sea

-  Chorus
Through it all, through it all
My eyes are on You
Through it all, through it all
It is well
So let go my soul and trust in Him
The waves and wind still know His name...It is well it is well with my soul

    

Hope Sees

"So how can you see what your life is worth
Or where your value lies?
You can never see through the eyes of man
You must look at your life, look at your life through heaven's eyes"

(lyrics by Brian Stokes Mitchell, "Through Heaven's Eyes" 
on the soundtrack "The Prince of Egypt," 1998) 

In the movie, young Moses had run to the desert to escape the wrath of Pharaoh and God began to paint for him a whole new identity; from an Egyptian Prince to a man of God, who the Almighty so loved that he called him His friend. (Exodus 33:11, Numbers 12:8)

You and I are beloved sons and daughters of the Father of Life!  Jesus has written your name on the palm of His hand and I believe He looks at your name and mine every day and traces it with His fingers until the day He will literally caress our faces in His loving hands when He tells us how long He has waited for that day!  Oh, what a day to hope for!

Let's look at two men who loved to see through Heaven's eyes.

The Apostle Paul began his career as a man who was greatly feared among followers of Christ.  Paul, or Saul, as he was called then, believed with all of his heart that he had been commissioned by God to rid the land of this "heretical teaching" when he was struck blind during a personal visit by the resurrected Lord Himself! Jesus corrected Saul's vision by blinding him! (Acts 9)  The outcome of that encounter with the glorified Lord was that Saul became Paul, his heart and mind were renewed, he became blind to all of his past, he accepted new life as a beloved son of God and was no longer a performer of dead religious traditions. Paul's spiritual eyes were opened as he was stricken with blindness.  He received a vision of his place in the body of Christ and was filled with hope for the race that was set before him.  We see in his letter to the Corinthians that he literally saw from heaven's perspective.  (2 Corinthians 12)  Paul was strengthened to endure the perils on the path - he ran the course of his race until the day he met the Lord who had captured his vision and his heart. 

David was a shepherd boy who had watched as Almighty God straightened many winding paths before his feet. I believe he made the Lord's Presence his "Google Maps" as he led his herd of sheep through treacherous middle eastern lands.  "Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; so that my feet did not slip."  (2 Samuel 22:37 KJV)  The eyes of David's young heart were thirsty for glimpses of heaven...and God delighted in that...and God satiated his thirsty soul!  David knew of the deep love between Moses and his Lord and he desired the same.  

     "He made known His ways unto Moses..."  Psalm 103:7 

David was called by God to become the next king of Israel but we know that he had to wait many years before this was realized.  How David nurtured great hope in his heart for the accomplishment of his rise to the throne, as God had promised.  The stirring, power-laden Psalms still ring out with the hope and love that David had in his heart for his Lord.  God allowed David to tap into and taste a New Testament-type grace in those ancient days simply because he yielded his heart to the Lover of his soul.  David understood grace and we see how he shed grace in many ways in the scripture-history of his life.  One awesome example is the account of the rag-tag, destitute, in-debt outcasts who were drawn to David as he was in exile at the cave of Adullam. (1 Samuel 22)  These broken spirited men lived and fought side by side with David, who sang to the Lord and sought His instructions for victory in battle.  They were transformed into the mighty men that we can read about later in 2 Samuel 23 and 1 Chronicles 12.  Through the revelation that David had in his heart - that he was a beloved son to God and not a performing slave - those men grasped the treasured glimpses from Heaven themselves and the negative self images and the depression and the grief and the loneliness left.  The longings of their hearts began to be realized, hope swallowed up the despairs of their past lives and they saw through Heaven's eyes what their true identities really were - they were not just mighty warriors for David but they were mighty treasures to the Lord.  

"Lord, thank You for opening the eyes of our understanding and letting us see through Your eyes."