Grasping How To Kiss The Wave

Charles Spurgeon once said, “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.”

I’m happy Spurgeon learned how to do that. It’s something I’m still grasping.

Doesn’t it feel like God sometimes picks your planet up just to turn it upside down? The last weeks have been tumultuous to say the least. Saying goodbye to some of the people I’m closest with; losing my furry best friend to cancer; scrambling to replace a vehicle after it decided that lasting me through college was all it wanted to accomplish. Tumultuous.

Don’t misunderstand; these past few weeks have been marked with good as well. Graduation, time spent with dear friends I hadn’t seen in quite some time, and accepting a job in a new city. Yet, sometimes even good things bring transition and change that still feels like a wave throwing you to the rocks.

What are you to do?

I’m studying through Romans once again, and Chapter 5 presents truth that we can root ourselves in during the tumultuous times, the times marked with suffering or heartache or fear. Verses 2-5 proclaim,

 

“Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

 

How do we kiss the wave? By rejoicing in the hope it reminds us of, by rejoicing in the fact that it doesn’t simply break us over rocks, but tosses us back upon THE Rock.

Our suffering produces endurance; our endurance produces character; our character produces hope. Hope does NOT put us to shame. God’s love has been poured out on his people, and we can rejoice in such hope that stems from the glory of God.

 

Hallelujah & amen.

 

I don’t fully grasp how to kiss the wave, because sometimes, it just seems like I’m being drowned. Yet, I’m learning. Spurgeon was right; the waves that we are struck with may sting, but they bring us back to the Rock on which we stand.