Ocean. Originally posted October 25, 2006

I'm spending the week in Los Angeles - If you've never been to LA in the fall, I recommend it. I spent many weeks here over the past two summers, and really hated it. Too much traffic - too much noise - WAY too much smog. It's like there are SUPPOSED to be mountains here, right? I can't SEE them, or anything else more than a mile away. The beach is nice always, but I had to spend most of my time in the city. However, this trip there is no smog! I could see the city flying in - which is a first. Downtown was beautiful, and you could even read the Hollywood sign! I've never seen anything of LA from the plane, so I knew it would be different. Tomorrow, I'll drive down from Malibu on the Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Monica before I have to go back to the 405 nightmare. I cannot wait, and I wish I had a camera! I LOVE the Pacific....Something about the angry waves crashing into the shore just hits me. I love the majesty of it all. Something as soft as a drop of water becomes the most fierce power on earth when accumulated into a mass. the crashing waves barely give you any insight at all into the true power of the ocean.

The last time I was here, I got to swim in the Pacific for the first time. What an amazing feeling it is! The power of the wave crashing on top of you combined with the power of the previous wave crashing under you back into the ocean is like no other feeling I've known. You get the sense that its toying with you. Kinda like - Hey - heres a little taste. But don't get me angry. You won't like me when I'm angry ;)

Feeling that kind of power wash over you reminds you of your mortality. Your finite existence. The ocean could take your life in an instant. If not the water, then the inhabitants thereof... Its a helpless feeling, too. I am an exceptional swimmer, but I know that my striving against the currents would be in vain if the ocean decided to come at me.

That kind of helplessness is liberating! To put yourself into that kind of vulnerability is a rush! It has me thinking...There is no accident that God's love is compared to an ocean. It washes over us in such a way that we are forced to respond to it. It is vast - fiercely powerful - deep - mysterious - life-giving. His grace is the same. When we step into it through surrender, we give ourselves over to a power that is incalculable. We don't know where we'll end up. It may not be the journey we planned. But it is liberating to let it wash over you.

Unlike the ocean, however - God's love does not toy with us - It only beckons us to swim out further. Safe? Depends on your definition! Dangerous? Absolutely. Protected? Completely.

How deep is His love? unfathomable.

My friend Alan has been walking with me now for over two decades. He knows me completely, and has seen the ins and outs, ups and downs. He has watched me struggle with Gods love for me and His all-sufficient grace. He told me earlier this year that he felt this would be the year my eyes would be opened. AND HOW! It's finally gone from my head to my heart. It is washing over me like the ocean. I look forward to writing more about this journey. I want to step back through some of the last ten years in the coming posts... I hope that everyone who reads these blogs can begin to understand a Jesus Christ who comes to save instead of judge.

Wake up Christians - We are not showing the world who Jesus really is. He was accused of being a drunk and a womanizer because he drank wine and hung with prostitutes. He didn't hang with the religious jet-set. He offended the religious elite. They needed saving just as bad as the adulterers and thieves, but the broken KNEW that they needed a savior. The elite knew they didn't. Which are we more like? Have we become dead like those religious leaders, the Pharisees? Folks - I have been bound up in judgement and fear my entire life. It has kept me blinded to the reality of the love of God. I have tried in vain to "be" a perfect Christian, instead of letting Him make me into His image.

I want to be the kind of Christian that urges others to swim out deeper into the ocean of His love with me. Not the kind that tries to drown friends in shallow water. I've been hanging out in that shallow water all of my life - being pushed under by religious bullies...Now I'm ready to swim...Safe? Depends on your definition. Dangerous? Absolutely. Protected? Completely.