August 27, 2025 -Swells or Waves

LAMENTATIONS 2:1-4:22

Chronological Bible Readings

Lamentations 3:22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,

    for his compassions never fail.

23 They are new every morning;

    great is your faithfulness.

24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;

    therefore I will wait for him.”

25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,

    to the one who seeks him;

26 it is good to wait quietly

    for the salvation of the Lord.

This reminded me of my reflections about God while on the beach yesterday. Last time I was here the water was calm clear with a mild current and gentle swells. You could comfortably spend hours in the water. Yesterday there were waves that are not normally on this beach because of a storm front that has been running through the area for the last week, and the current was really strong. It was a workout to maintain your place. It was not possible to fight the current. We figured out the best thing to do was to walk up the beach get in there and go with the waves and current until we got to where our umbrella was and get out.

Now the ocean is a place that always makes me reflect on God's enormous uncomprehensible vastness. But yesterday I thought about those waves. As I listened to them rolling in and crashing in a rhythmic manor. It reminded of God's faithfulness and consistency. Whether the waves are gentle swells that lightly caress the sand and your body or if they are high waves that crash over your head and stir up the sand they are always there. They are consistently doing the work that they are designed to do in the ecosystem of the ocean that is another mind-blowing God thing in my thinking.

Then this morning it the waves analogy is going even deeper for me. What makes those waves higher and rougher? The changes in the weather. The storms.

The Israelites created their own storms by disobeying God. They were not content floating in the gentle constant faithfulness of God in their life. In the gentle swells they forgot who was carrying them gently to shore in His soft current. They kept swimming against the current. Reminder after reminder called them back but they did their own thing. The storms that came into their life were a result of their disobedience and it takes large loud crashing waves to get their attention. It takes a strong current that they can't fight. A current that is going to carry them to where God wants them to be.

We too can create our own storms. I have always said that when life is going smoothly and we are happy and content it is harder to keep our eyes on God. It is easier to think that we can do things on our own and rely on our own "power" to get where we want to go. Those gentle swells and soft current are easy to walk or swim against. God who is consistent and faithful will continue to try to get our attention. He may increase the current or increase the swells but in that we have become so self-dependent that we just work harder to fight Him. And when we are fighting His current, we are sure to find ourselves in some storms. And it is in those storms that our faithful God is still there. To get us through the storms He needs to be the strong one for us. He will be louder and stronger because he needs to be seen and heard over the storm. When we decide to turn to Him, His strong current will carry us to where we need to be. His waves will crash over us and wash us and help us to remember that we are nothing compared to Him. I much prefer the gentle swells over the crashing waves. How about you?