"For those of you who do not know me, you would have no way of knowing that i totally love thunderstorms. There is something majestic and powerful and infinite and just generally awesome about a gentle display of nature's fury.
I love them almost as much as i love swimming. Not the competitive time, I am way too laid back for that, but much more of the jump in the water and enjoy the feeling of floating effortlessness beneath the surface kind of swimming.
Both things involve water
Bear with me
I promise to get to the point
So when you swim, you get wet all over, no part of you is dry, and if it is i would put out there that you are not doing it right
If you go out in the rain, you also get wet all over, but most people will just sit inside and watch the storm go down. I cannot really blame them, thunderstorms aredangerous you could possibly get wet, and cold, or struck by lighting. (Which is actually neither of those before mentioned things but is most likely worse then the two of them combined) So instead people are more then content to sit back and watch the awesome power of the storm from a safe distance
a safe distance, from something powerful
not getting wet
not diving in
Oh wait a second, that sounds.... almost spiritual
See here is the thing. About a week ago it was pouring outside and I wanted to jump into the pool while it was pouring outside but when i asked people if they wanted to go, they said no. The most common reason why not was because it was raining
wait what?
See the Christian today seems totally into the whole "religious dive" when it comes to swimming in our neat and content pools of our comfort zones. I will totally raise my hand in church, the same church i go to week in and week out, and i will evangelize within my sphere of influence, i will give myself over to the complete faith experienceas long as doing so means that i am diving into a well maintained hotel pool with a lifeguard
does this seem quite right?
Now don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with diving into our convenient pools It is actually a good thing, and a lot of people will not even go that far. But this summer we are learning a lot about the difference between good things and GREAT things If you can dive in then you are well on your way. You have cast aside the floaties, no longer are dipping your toes in, no longer keeping your hair dry, you areso close to fully surrendering
but not quite there
Because God is not a swimming pool, God is a thunderstorm. God is not predictableis not something that gets cleaned once a week, he is powerful, and destructive and awe inspiring. C.S lewis portrayed Jesus as a Lion in his book "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" and there is a really powerful moment where the beavers have this to say about him.
" He is not a tame lion, but he is good"
The thing to remember is that Even a thunderstorm brings life giving water, and be incredibly gentle, but it also has the power to drasticly and violently change lives
so does our God
My God
So can we get out of the pool?
And into the thunderstorm
Lets go beyond safe
and watch what the Lord will do
Earlier i told you no one wanted to go into the pool, which was true. But the third night of project there was a huge thunderstorm, and as it was drifting away I took two guys and two girls and we went down at midnight to the beach, in the pitch black, under the lightning crackling sky, and plunged into the water so dark we could not even see the waves until they hit us. We were at the mercy of the storm, and the mercy of the water
It was completely beyond safe
It was amazing"
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