Some of you know that I’ve been spending a lot of time at the beach lately. I never tire of the view and the sound of the waves splashing around me. Each visit to the beach produces treasures and discoveries. Each trip brings a measure of peace and rest that is refreshing.
But I’ve been thinking about the beach in another way.
When you stand on the beach, you can view the vast sea with its endless horizon and feel the safety of the ground under your feet. It’s from a place of safety that we can view life too.
God has been speaking to me for several months about risk. He has found multiple ways to draw me to a place where I am more willing to step out of my comfort zone and risk living life in a new way.
There is a verse in Luke 5 where Jesus is speaking to Simon Peter after He has borrowed Simon’s boat to speak to the people on the shore of the lake. Jesus says to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
I got to thinking about how it is at the beach. When you look out at the water, if you are patient, you can see fish jumping. You might even see a dolphin or two. Out there, where the water is deeper, is where the fish are. It’s where life is.
Life isn’t on the beach. All the discoveries and treasures I mentioned finding on the beach are, for the most part, dead. Everything that washes up on the sand is dead or dying. You could argue that there are seeds that get tangled in the debris and seeds contain life, but even seeds won’t grow and produce just lying there on the beach.
Life is out in the deep waters. The deeper you go the more you will find. But going into the deeper water is scary. It’s feels safer to stay on the beach, just watching from a distance. But if you do that, you will miss out on some of the incredible things God has for you. You have to be willing to risk something to gain something.
It’s fine to take time to sit on the shore and watch. A time to be refreshed and to rest for a while. But when the rest period is over you need to take a deep breath and dive back in!