The Muck and the Ocean

I imagine a woman standing on the shore watching the ocean. She senses God’s great power.  He is the one who commands this, the wind and the waves.   She is humble and meek and out of instinct, out of respect, she bows.  She feels the wonder and the glory of it.  And there is this hesitation, a little bit of trepidation, because she senses God calling her into the ocean. He beckons her. The waves swell monstrously high and there are unknowns....what if she gets sucked under or swept away?  The shore is much safer.  But she takes the chance to step in, and she wills herself out into the waves, and there, she discovers that the waves are made of GOD’S LOVE.  And if these waves are love, what reason does she have to fear?  This ocean water contains no salt, it is living water. This water sustains, and quenches the deepest of thirsts.  The waves of God's love satiate her soul.

There exists an ocean of love available for those who seek it.  No one could fully comprehend the vastness and the depths of it. He calls us out there to know it and to live.  He invites us to make that first step, and by faith we wade out even further.  And then we see….we experience the love crashing over us, in wave after wave. His love gives sweet freedom and revelation. New life for our bones.

Ministry is a dogfight.  It is full of desperate and horrible situations.  Of people making the same mistakes over and over again.  Falling flat on their faces. The hamster wheel of sin choices, the cycle.  And you watch people go round and round and finally they cry out for help. And you get down in the muck with them.  You roll up your pant legs and you get into the filth and you reach out your hand and you beg for them to put Jesus first. You pray and you hope and you love them. And you plead for them to consider Jesus. Because beside that muck is the OCEAN.  He has been waiting for them, with a love beyond measure.

But they don’t move.   Because after all these years of ministry, I know, that most people just don’t.

“For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

It is not that they want to stay in the muck, maybe it is just that they are overwhelmed by the Ocean.  Maybe it is just that they do not trust the Ocean because they have never been in it.  And there are so many implications to getting out of the mud and living for JESUS. Yes, it means surrender to your lack of control.  YES, it means obedience. Yes…it means unspeakable joy and hope and life.

He longs for us, He longs to pull us out of our muck. To cleanse us from it. And we cry out to Him when we are in it, maybe even entirely because we put ourselves there.  It doesn’t mean we don’t beg Him to save us….  We want to be free of worry and depression and heartache and anger and misery and fear.  This miserable life….He longs to show us more, but how can He save us without our faith? I truly hurt for people. And I want SO BADLY for them to give Jesus everything!!  Do the hard stuff!!  Take the courage!! Fight for your life.  But you have to lose your life to save it….

It keeps me up at night, the people in the muck.  If I focus on the muck I drown in it.  If I focus on the people in it, I drown in them. I must admit, I have been drowning lately and not focusing on the Ocean, not getting in the Ocean myself.  I need that OCEAN just as much as the people I counsel.  I cannot save anyone from the muck.  And I cannot transplant you from the muck to the water.  Only Jesus can.