Welcome to Buoy, a Life in Deeper Water podcast.

Episode 35. I Find Faith a Thousand Miles from Today (get off the beach and sail toward God)

(click here to listen now)

Hello human.

I walked the beach with a new friend this morning. A friendship starts on a metaphorical beach, with early decisions about which way to walk, how far to go, when to turn back. And I couldn’t help but wonder through our conversation about life, our faith journey, prayer, and relationships—what horizon God has us sailing toward? How far out would we go? How seaworthy is our God-boat together? Because we are in different seasons. We are “two conversations in” on being friends. What we know is that neither of us are afraid to swim in deeper water. And we are looking at the same horizon. Show us, God.

When I first started coming to the Outer Banks, I was immediately drawn to the open horizon, that thin line of open water that met the Atlantic’s sky. I tried to grasp that it just kept going, water over water over water.

It didn’t take me long to find photos, and read stories about what the open sea is like. It didn’t take me long to discover what an ocean swell is. That it is not just a big wave.

So, what is it?

You Can’t See an Ocean Swell from the Beach

I was surprised to learn that swells are not generated by local winds blowing, for example, near the shore. You do not see how it started by just standing on the beach and watching the waves crest.

No, swells are the result of the interaction of severe storms with a large fetch of water that takes place in the open ocean, thousands of miles away from landmasses. Ok, so what is “fetch?” The fetch is the time and distance covered by the same wind on an unobstructed body of water. The fetch can be said to be the momentum zone allowing the wind to lift a sea. The longer the wind blows and the greater the distance it covers – the greater the fetch – the greater the wave height. An ocean swell is a succession of massive and crestless wind waves.

The longer and harder the wind blows, the bigger the ocean swell.

As a swell moves away from the storm, waves with a longer wavelength will travel faster and overtake shorter wavelength swells. As waves propagate into shallow water, they start to slow down, the wavelength is shortened, and the wave height rises. This is what we see from shore.

I began to think about how God works in my life. He is ominiscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. He is the Creator of the swells in my life. He is all-knowing. All being. All powerful.

God says to His people in,

Isaiah 51:15

For I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar (the Lord of hosts is His name).

 

David says God is sovereign over the ocean He created, the ocean that moves by His laws.

Psalm 89:9

You rule the swelling of the sea;

When its waves rise, You still them.

 

God rules that which He created. There are many scriptural references to God’s power to calm the seas for us, coupled with our familiarity about how Jesus calmed the storm for His disciples, to comfort them, because He rules His creation. He does that. But I am not talking about storms.

A Thousand Miles from My Today

Because that same divine power that can still the swell creates a limitless divine energy:  The more God is present in our lives, the bigger our spiritual swell is.

And like the open sea swells, God is always coming toward me. He is always coming for me.

The waves that make their way to my shore are many:  I see His presence in my days. I feel His love, I praise Him for things He does to make my life full and rewarding. I welcome His assurances. I see them. Because I wait for them.

But the distant swells that He is creating that have not entered my conscious reality, or I am not yet able to see how He is navigating through my circumstances, the people that are passing through, and why. What about those? For instance, what was my new friend doing a year ago, what seed had God planted to bring us together today?

That there is unseen movement, a spiritual force a thousand miles from my today, that is “God’s breath” creating a stronger and stronger “spiritual fetch” that will give new height to my faith. That when that swell is formulating, gaining momentum, when my heart hears His voice sooner, when I get off the beach and I sail toward Him…

… well…

I am living in God’s distant swell. I have left the shore.

If “the fetch is the time and distance covered by the same wind on an unobstructed body of water” then God’s Will is the time and distance covered by His same Power on my unobstructed, free will to live in His name.

To live with Him hundreds, no thousands of miles from land on open water with an open will. I can’t help but want to be closer to His distant swell, to leave the shore and travel toward Him. Out there. Beyond the horizon.

That as a I grow in my love, in my spirt-filled intimacy with Him, I will sail farther and farther from my human shore, toward the distant swell He is creating, breathing into my life.

I challenge you to venture toward a sea where there’s no land in sight. Just God.

“To reach a port we must set sail. Sail, not tie at anchor. Sail, not drift.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

The Rise and Fall of God’s Distant Swell

What we find when we sail, is life-changing. Solomon tells us in,

Proverbs 20:5

 

5 The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters,

    but one who has insight draws them out.

What does this mean?

What we hold in our heart requires a deep dive, a commitment to seeking insights, seeking revelation as to what purpose God has placed within each of us.

I have always challenged how to buoy my Christian faith in God’s biggest swells. Big, raging, life-changing swells. A buoy helps sea travelers navigate challenging waters. Not calm waters. It is designed to rock with movement, changing conditions, and low visibility. It is most visible when it rises.

I just read that you can track the physics of a wave in how a buoy rocks on the water. (I’ll get back to you on that.)

The truth is, faith that rocks requires a swell. A buoyed faith rocks with spiritual resilience. A buoyed life guides others to God’s divine persuasion and revelation. Together, we are the watery swell of humans who do earthly life persuaded by the inworking of Jesus Christ. We buoy the lives of others to the extent that Jesus is working in each of us.

And again, it is the ocean we are talking about. I can’t swim across it. I didn’t create it. I can’t see very much of what is swimming around in it. I will never swim to touch the bottom of it. The ocean owns the word “vast” in my life. I can’t mentally contain it.

Yet, Mother Teresa assures us that the purpose God lays in our heart is sufficient, “it finds its place in the vast sea of God’s purpose.  She says:

“We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.” — Mother Teresa

I read stories about being at sea because of what life at sea teaches people. I want to jump off today’s BUOY with this, a quote that I ran across and have pinned to my heart. One sea captain said, “when you feel the rise and fall of your boat, you know you are at sea.”  

So with God, our Creator. So with Jesus, our Lord and Savior. So with the Holy Spirit, our guide.

I begin to rise and fall across my greater spiritual purpose. You begin to rise and fall across your greater spiritual purpose. It is then that we know we are at sea, powered by God’s distant swell.