Embracing the Sea

Hello friends,

Let me tell you about my relationship with the sea. Because I work on boats, I often hear the assumption, "You must love the ocean." Truth is, I find the ocean intimidating. Vast and full of unknowns. Wild and beyond my control. Yes, it can be beautiful, but it's power can quickly reduce a situation to life and death.

Yet I am drawn to the ocean, such as this past reading week break when I took advantage of Cape Breton's best back-country camping to live at the forest-sea interface. Waking up in a sun-baked tent on the beach, picking my way barefoot through the rolled-round rocks to the pristine sand, and then bravely entering the Atlantic morning ocean, I felt fully alive. Or at the end of a grass-caped cape finding just inside the trees sun-dappled pools and fairy falls cascading down into a turquoise bay, and not just seeing the sparkling water and hearing it's sweet chatter, but jumping into the salt to feel the surf surge, sticking my head under the falls to feel the cool clean water rinse down my skin, and then clambering up to dry on a warm rock ledge. Entering in without reserve is invigorating, revitalizing.

I see the sea as a beautiful metaphor for my life with Christ. Life circumstances are often beyond my control, often overwhelming. But even greater is Christ, who is Life. If I am willing to surrender, plunge in, and trust that He is in control, there is abundant life to embrace.

There are multiple milestones in my life where I made that conscious plunge... as an 8-year old praying with my teacher in the classroom after school because I wanted a relationship with Christ... as a 17-year old emaciated by an eating disorder facing the reality that continuing my tight-mouthed control would lead to death while the alternative of letting go to God would be scary but full of tastes, sights, smells, and energy to explore the world... as a 19-year old home from college overseas where my Chemistry teacher declared he would break me of my faith, sitting down on a rock to decide once for all if I would stay the course of faith or walk away... as a 25-year old university top-10 scholarship student stepping beyond narrow definitions of success to enter full-time what was in my heart-of-hearts: missions on the coast... and then as a 31-year old facing the brokenness of misplaced love and coming back to follow Christ my first love whatever the cost...  

In each plunge, I was afraid of the unknowns in the future, just as I am afraid of what I cannot see when I am over my head in the sea. But in each plunge, I have no regret. And just like my baptism in water was a symbol of surrendering my old life to choose new life, so every day I affirm this choice to jump in and embrace Christ's abundant life. The waters of the Atlantic this past week were simply a powerful reminder of this commitment. I do not know where this adventure at sea will take me, but I know God. God has no unknowns but depths and heights and ways far beyond me and the sea. 

Choosing to trust and welcoming you on the journey with me,

Sea Catherine