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an ocean of truth

Home » General » an ocean of truth
art by jen renninger

I grew up a short drive from the awesome expanse of salt water that is the Pacific Ocean.
I spent many days as a child digging in the sand, collecting sand crabs in buckets, and splashing in the waves at Corona del Mar. 
Friday nights in high school, my friends and I would roast marshmallows over fire pits while the waves at Newport Beach broke behind us. 
On misty mornings in college I rollerbladed up and down Santa Monica’s boardwalk.

But then my life took a turn down a land-locked path and I moved inland.

Oh, how I miss the ocean.

Mr. Fantastic and I took a trip to the Pacific two years ago. It was heavenly.

The morning of our second day in Santa Barbara, on a cliff overlooking crashing waves, I stared out at tiny boats in the distance and surfers bobbing around like corks near the shore, and I knew that part of my soul is only really alive when I am near the sea.

People have found ways to build on mountains, dam rivers, tear down forests, build bridges over wide rivers, and erase nature from acres and acres of land for the sake of progress.

But no one can build a city on the ocean.

No one can tame the fierce waves that never stop rolling in. No one can dam her course and change the tide to pull that massive body of water to another place.

We can step into boats and navigate her surface. We can mine her fish and dump our chemicals in her. We can cheapen her with our irresponsibility and selfishness. But we will never stop her.

The sight of her magnificence calls to the deep places of my heart and cheers for me to press on in faith. The world may try to cheapen our devotion to hope, but it cannot stop the faithfulness of God.

God is like the ocean. Unstoppable, magnificent, refreshing, beautiful, strong, and fierce.

Like the ocean, His truth cannot be ignored.  Any path you take on the earth will eventually bring you face to face with an ocean to cross. Every path in life will eventually bring you face to face with God and the truth of the gospel.

You can dirty the water of His message with irresponsible and selfish living. But you can’t stop His plans to reach the lost with His truth.

We serve an awesome Creator who signed His name in nature. It is easy to forget that when we are surrounded by buildings and bridges and roads that declare the glory of human intelligence.

But I have only to remember the stormy sight of giant waves crashing down on sandy beaches and I know:

My soul lives for a mighty God. Nothing can keep me from His unstoppable love.art by jen renninger

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Do you ever just want to open your arms wide to God and laugh at the way life is completely ridiculous? Carrie’s monthly newsletter provides a chance to grow spiritually through a blend of rich devotional teaching and cultural hot take. It’s solidly grounded in the belief that God is generally in a good mood, and the closer we get to him, the more complete our joy will be.