Boogie Boarding & God

Boogie boarding and our relationship with God have a lot things in common. Both are fun, invigorating, and worth the effort. A day out boogie boarding can be compared to being on an adventure with God. Here’s what I mean.

Step one - prepare for the adventure. We’ve decided to go boogie boarding, so we set a date, time and place to boogie board. We gather our equipment: bathing suit, wet suit, boogie board and fins. With God we prepare through prayer, counsel and the word of God.

Step two - get into the water. The water is cold and uncomfortable. There’s the initial period when you’re in water up to your knees and debating whether to walk in any deeper. You’re counting the costs. Will boogie boarding be worth the physical discomfort of being cold? Much like when God calls us to do something, we may decide we want to do it, but we approach with caution. We get our feet wet before we decide if we’re going to fully submerge ourselves or turn back. We may or may not be willing to get out of our comfort zone. The cold water has deterred many a person from going boogie boarding just like a little discomfort has deterred many a Christian from moving forward.

Step three - face the resistance. Once we’ve decided to stay in the water, we have to push past the breaking waves to get deep enough to catch waves. Some days the ocean is calmer than others and pushing past the waves doesn’t seem that difficult. Other times, the waves pound and toss us around and it takes great effort and determination to get deeper. The same is true when we take a leap of faith to do the will of God. We face resistance such as doubt, discouragement, financial or relational hardships, etc. Sometimes the resistance knocks us around a bit, but we have to be willing to fight harder to get past it.

Step four - wait patiently. We’ve made it past the breaking waves and now we’re ready to boogie. The water is calmer and by now our bodies are starting to get acclimated to the water temperature. But, now we have to wait. Our patience is tested. Are we going to take first wave that comes along or are we willing to wait for a better one? God’s timing is not our timing. Most likely, we’ll have to wait on God before we can move ahead. Sometimes we get impatient and move to quickly and we end up settling for something less than what God had intended for us.

Step five - catch the wave. Now you may think that this part is easy since we’ve already submerged ourselves in cold water, been pounded by waves and have waited patiently. But, it’s still going to take a lot of effort to catch a wave. You have to be on the lookout for just the right wave. When the wave approaches, your board needs to be in position and you have to know just the right time to paddle and kick like crazy. Despite all our effort, we still might not catch the wave. Likewise, we need to be ready when God calls us to move or we may miss Him as well. This is not a time to slack off, we must remain in a ready state by continuing to pray, fellowship and read His Word.

Step six – ride the wave. The payoff for all the hard effort is riding the wave. Once we catch the wave it doesn’t take much of our own effort to stay on it. The wave is doing all the work and we get to go along for a wonderful ride. This stage is what I call riding the waves of God’s grace. It’s at this point in our journey where we’re walking in the grace of God and very little of our own effort. Oh how truly magnificent His grace is.

Step seven – repeat steps 2-6. That’s right, catch another wave. Go for a ride, again and again. Each ride is different and exciting. Every time we step out in faith with God, we’re in for a new experience.