Over the last couple
of days I have been watching surfers at Mount Maunganui Beach. It’s one of
those sports I have never tried but have observed at great length.
In part my reticence
at trying is the apparent futility of loitering for the right wave. There’s
just too much waiting, trying, falling and waiting again only to catch a
marginal wave and then paddling out to begin the whole waiting, freezing,
trying thing again. Surely there are more interesting things to do? Yet,
because I’m in a reflective frame of mind I have been watching the art of
surfing in a different way this last week.
I’ll probably get
hammered for this, but apart from the obvious talent required to stay upright
on water like Jesus did, it appears there are two crucial decisions in surfing.
The first is choosing the right wave and the second is knowing when to get off.
The first requires patience, the other, experience. But even with both those
attributes, there are no guarantees the ride will be sweet. Still, surfers
paddle out and try again and again.
It seems they are
driven by something that makes them get up early on a cold day to wait in the
water for a wave to ride. And then there’s the obvious struggle that the
employed ones have to quite literally tear themselves away to attend to more
mundane activities like work. That drive is the illusive great ride that makes
the whole experience worthwhile. All the hard work of paddling, waiting, and
freezing evaporates on a well managed wave.
For most of us life is
a bit the same. There’s always a swell that gives life its ups and downs.
Sometimes it’s too calm and other times it’s too violent. But whatever the case
we have to learn to ride the waves when all too often we would rather ignore
them.
Life waves can be
things like grief, failure, success, despair, and enjoyment. A wave might be a
great job, a new relationship or a failed one. Waves are those life
circumstances that move us in significant ways. Some we want and some we don’t.
Like surfing, the art is knowing when to get on and when to get off.
Many of us either fail
to get on the wave and ride it when we should, and likewise we can stay on too
long. Choosing to ride a wave is to face your reality square in the face and
deal with it. Once dealt with we paddle back out to ride a different wave.
Paddling is all part of the package – we survived to live again.
Faith doesn’t smooth
the waters it merely helps us face them with hope that says every roller will
make sense when it has passed. And pass it will.
Jesus never offered his disciples an easy ride, just an exciting, scary and fulfilling one that requires a bit of patience, the odd drubbing and fair bit of paddling.