The Secret Beach

The Secret Beach

11/24/15

(Experience of a Natural Setting)

Every day, when the weather allows it, I go to what is [ironically] known as "the Secret Beach." This is a beach on the James River that is nestled among some houses in the Riverside Neighborhood. While it is generally "not so secret" among my closer friends and community, there is rarely anybody there when I escape to this place. 

On my last visit at the Secret Beach, I had a fresh revelation and perspective on something. As I looked out onto the waters and listened to the tides crashing in over and over, I thought about the work that the Lord has been doing in and around CNU over the past few years. Often, my friends and I refer to moves of God as "waves." There are many songs that use this language and it is a common way of articulating what the Lord is doing in a certain place. However, as I looked out on the waters, I started to realize that this "wave" analogy may not be the most accurate way to picture how the Lord moves. 

When thinking about waves, we often think of how they rise up over a place and then crash. But then the water recedes until another wave builds up again. On the other hand, tides are consistently coming over and over. Of course, some times the tide is higher than others, but it comes regularly nonetheless. I realized that a better metaphor for how God is moving would be in "tides." This is because I believe the Lord is always  at work... certain times seem to be a "lower tide" than others- but the tide is coming nonetheless.