“We’re adrift on a sailboat
My love is the sea
Yours is the horizon
Constant and steady
You set my landlocked heart afloat
Lifted my lonesome sails
The tide is out, the moon is high
We’re sailing”
Lifted my lonesome sails
The tide is out, the moon is high
We’re sailing”
-Brooke Fraser
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I’ve never been on a sailboat. The only boat I’ve really been on is the boat you take from the Long Beach Harbor to Catalina to go whale watching. The boat moves with the waves, but vary rarely did I lose my step.
Though I haven’t been on a sail boat, I recently went paddle boarding, which I would assume is more touchy and finicky than a sail boat.
I had an interesting experience while paddle boarding. If you don’t know what paddle boarding is, it is where you stand on a board similar to a surf board. You have a paddle and you are supposed to stay balanced and not fall in the water while paddling to move yourself forward…sounds easy enough, huh?…HA. I was standing up on the board, feeling pretty balanced, when all of the sudden, my hand slipped. I was thrown forward by the momentum of my swift, warrior-like paddling (kidding), causing me to land on the board on my knees and proceed straight into the water. I was completely embarrassed because from under the water I could hear the two boys with Alli (my roommate) and myself laughing hysterically. After that, I was always on guard, and good thing because I fell several more times before we were done for the night.
I just discovered the lyrics written above. They are written by, one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Brooke Fraser. She does a great job of painting a picture using words: “We’re adrift on a sailboat. My love is the sea. Yours is the horizon – constant and steady.”
My heart longs for this type of love. The silly thing is I already have this type of love. A constant, steady love that awakens my heart to spring after a long winter. A love that makes the bitter sweet. I long to have love that is never-failing, always-joyful. I long for this love yet, it was given to me the moment I answered Christ’s call.
In my longing for this love, I have thought to myself, “I feel ugly.” Not the appearance type of ugly, but the man-my-attitude-and-character-stink type of ugly. I prayed last night that the Lord would simply help me, help develop my character and correct my attitude and calm my ever-crazy life. This morning after I woke up from my dream, I read Psalm 89:8-9 – “O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O LORD, with your faithfulness all around you? You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.”
I serve a God who rules the raging sea, or in my case, keeps me from diving face-first into the water off a paddle board. Silly, I know, but my God is great. He can take a life that feels out of control and ugly at times, a life that is sometimes drowning in self-pity and jealousy and make it beautiful and cause it to be still (see James 3). Who am I that I deserve such love, attention, and care? I am nothing, and that is the beauty of that message. My God is a great God full of faithfulness and grace. I am so undeserving. That love is more than anything I could ever dream up or imagine.
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To Be Continued… 🙂
sarahecooley.com 
So beautiful – and I have to disagree on one point: It's not silly! God absolutely keeps you on your paddle board!! I just went to a women's leadership conference last Saturday, and one speaker talked about how fellowship does not have to align to a rigid structure, and that she leads a group that goes on adventures, then chats about how they met God through that adventure. The first trip was to go zip lining in the, and she was too afraid to just jump, or even step off… so she scooched off. And of course, ended up loving it!
She said, “I didn't take a leap of faith… it was a scooch of faith. But God met me there, like He always does!”
I'm so thankful that you see Christ alive in your life, steadying the waves before your paddle board.
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