The ocean is quite large

Monday night I went for a run. We had come back from men's time and dodgeball (awesome.), and my friends Steve and Connor came with me for a run. It was about ten o'clock and feeling wonderful outside. We ran up and down the boardwalk for about twenty minutes or so, and got back to where we would turn inland and head back to the hotel. But...

After running, naturally, you get very warm. You know, all the exertion, you just want to cool off. That was when we decided to jump in the ocean.

Now let me tell you something about the ocean at night (mom, I know you already hate this... but bear with me) - it is just less than terrifying. The waves don't stop at night, like you might think. Instead, they just become next to invisible. The water is vastly unknown, even ten feet in front of you.

We waded about ten feet in, only up to our waists, and it felt great. It was just Steve and I, and we started to chat. We shared our stories about life, life before Christ, the hardships, the struggles, all of that. The waves were pushing us around a bit, and we started to talk about the ocean.

Let me say it again, the ocean is quite large. Sometimes you just have to look at it and think as hard as you can - and then you still can't imagine just how great and untouchable it really is. It is pure power.

That was when it hit me. Earlier that day, we had a time called "experiencing Jesus". There were a lot of different stations to go to to experience Christ, whether it was through art, music, writing, what have you. One station was a garbage can. We got the chance to write down anything that was holding us back - sin, despair, hurts, walls, whatever it was - on a notecard and rip it up and throw it in the garbage can. One of the verses that accompanied this station was from Micah 7:19,

"You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl ALL our iniquities into the Depths of the Sea."

That was when it all clicked. I was standing in the sea that God promised to throw my junk into. That same sea was so big, I couldn't even dream of grasping its depths. How could I continue to let these things hold me back when God threw them there, where I could never get them - where they could never harm me again?

So that is our God. He is bigger than the sea, bigger than the earth, bigger than the heavens. Who is like our God?

No one.