“Be careful of the riptides, man.  They are pretty dangerous right now.”  A toothless, homeless-looking Hawaiian, looks up as we walk past, dangling snorkels in our hands. Us new to the islands.  Him, a local..

And sometimes those that have been around awhile, those that have rode the waters, tasted the tides, those that have experienced the waves of this life, can discern much clearer at times…the real dangers, perhaps, in this life….the ones we miss as we stroll along ignorant in this life.

“Thanks man.” My dark-skinned husband flashes the hang loose sign as we keep heading to the waters shores.

My biggest fear? Deep waters. My only scare, being drawn by seas that seem larger than what I can control.  But, I head to the water anyway.

Because sometimes beauty isn’t found by spectating.  Life is more than gritty sand between your toes standing idol-ly on the shores.  Didn’t He call for us to be bold, to run full blast, deep into the things the Lord made for us to enjoy?

And I want to live out my faith in real, tangible ways. Don’t you?

So I adjust my mask, practice trusting this air will come through the small tube attached to my face.  I slip on fins and ask my husband who was a surfer in South America, if I am doing everything right.  My head rises.  Salt water fills my mouth a while. I re-adjust again.

“Yes, just relax.  And stay close to where I am.” 

And I am thankful for this partnership, this one-falls, another-can-help-you kind of living.  I am grateful that in two’s we are much stronger.  For this wisdom of another, helps us along when we struggle.  And we can do the same for them.

Down low; yellow, red, blue, carnival colored fish swim frantically away from us.  Water clear, crystal, see through. And in the deep where sound is muffled and the world stops, I find His beauty is magnified clearly.

Still, in the midst of beauty luring, can’t we all get carried away?

I swim deeper. Not thinking of the riptide.  I want to float, enjoy, live this moment in Hawaii, where the sun is bright and everything seems to be going my way.

“Stay here”, I hear Him say from the surface. A dark anchor that looks like from the Titanic cuts within the sand. Fish dancing around this strong iron thing linking the dry and the fluid, the earth and the water, the surface and the depths of where we were snorkeling.

But, a drift came.  I feel it tug at me.  The dark water beckons me, out to where I cannot see. Me, fearful, yet pulled away to it at the same time. Wanting to fix my eyes on that rugged anchor, but also drawn by the fish who swim in other places.

And sometimes when waters shift, when life rises and falls, and tides pull at your legs in places you can’t see…it can be easy to loose direction.  Easy to miss that  the safest place to be is with others. Fixing our eyes on a focal point, rooted to The Anchor.

I frantically swim back to where I belong.  Stomach queasy, full from the adrenaline of nearly being lost….and all the water I drank, trying to get back to where I belong.

And yet, how many times are we lured by the current, fail to “get” the fact that waters filled with beauty aren’t always exactly as they seem.  How often do we get sucked by the tide, pulled by the drift, lured to places that make us long that we had stayed rooted deep, solid, focused to the one thing that never uproots or leaves us?

So, in this life of rip-tides, this journey of pulling attentions, diverted lives….Will you join me in fixing your eyes on The Anchor? 

Will you choose to pair up with someone who has been where you want to go?  Will you stay firm in the faith when the dark waters of this world call you to places you just know might not be that safe to go?

We get home and read in the Hawaiian reports that sharks had been seen the next day exactly where we had been snorkeling. And I thank God that I didn’t play around with fate…that  I stayed close to the anchor, with my husband close beside me who would have done anything to protect me if I’d gone astray.

And as I think about this, I search my heart.  Where have we maybe, floated away?  Where have I let the rip-tides of this life get in the way of keeping my eyes safely on the anchor?

Can we right now, together, commit to only swimming where the anchor is?  Only venturing in the deep where He calls us to be?  Only going where He leads?

For there is beauty unseen.  Beauty that waits for us, if we stay in the reef of His provision.  We weren’t called to sit comfortable, waiting safely on the shore.  We were made for more, fixing our eyes upon  Him, giving Him control…trusting wholeheartedly, the Anchor of our Souls?

UNITE Link Party

It is time to take whatever post and link it below for UNITE!  Don’t know what to post?  Remember, your post can be anything family friendly. 

Oh and after you link up, would you post a link back and stop to comment on the post before yours?

Happy UNITING and may God bless this season….Him being the center.