stormy seas and the Rock of Ages

Sometime in June, my sister texted me this Charles Spurgeon quote- “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.”

I don’t know quite why it pierced so deep, but the quote (and the larger idea), have been rolling around my head since. I’m sure part of it is that ocean metaphors are easy to envision currently (living in Saipan, with sea views every way we look). And also, I have often compared this past year to attempting to stay afloat in very choppy water.

But the bigger reason that it resonates so perfectly is that there is so much good here ‘in the waves’- the kind of good that we will miss once we drift into calmer waters (as funny as that sounds).

Perhaps the greatest gift that has come out of this difficult season is a greater trust in our God, and a firmer knowledge of His ability to hold up when everything else crumbles. He is the Only One that does not bottom out, that never leaves, that can withstand and weather all of the storms. Even in the things that threaten to consume, crushing things, things you are not sure you’ll come out of unscathed- He is unshakeable and true.

This new trust, and this new close, and this secret work He is doing here in the dark- these are such precious and valuable gifts, and ones we would never trade for an easier story.