Oceans And Appetites
Learning the power behind both
“Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Put My yoke upon your shoulders — it might appear heavy at first, but it is perfectly fitted to your curves. Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. When you are yoked to Me, your weary souls will find rest. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” (Mt 11:28–30 The Voice)
I spent one day with my daughter and we packed a lunch and drove to the ocean for a day. My one day to myself has to be enough. One day off from work must sustain me for a while. One day is all I had and will have for a while more.
I stood in the water. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t venture out over my head. Except for a few brave stragglers I was among many who only played with the ocean’s waves. The sun was hot, the water cold, but the contrast invigorated and replenished any languorous feeling. I watched with anticipation the power of the waves. As one would approach me, I mentally gauged the strength of it. I would brace myself in an effort to stand against it. Sometimes I was strong enough. Other times it would thrust me forward or submerge me under with salt up my nose and down my throat. That particular day the waters were filled with thousands of unfertilized salps, which are tiny, clear, jellied creatures related to the jellyfish. Although harmless to humans they are not something you want to ingest. It was bad enough to think I was playing in a sperm bank.
Now, five days later I think about the waves. Many were small, half-hearted attempts to push the tide out from the shore. After a series of them, a few larger ones would rise up and do the work of ten. The small ones seemed insignificant, but now I wonder how much they fueled the precipitous.
Though I am not the ocean, I am subject to the very same power.
“I tell you the truth, that no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.” (John 13:16 NIV)
I think of the burdens I carry, and the weight I fall under, and what I intake as I am submerged under all of it. What does Jesus mean when He makes this statement “come unto me?” Where is the rest? Have I not come, over and over and over…..? What am I missing?
What am I waiting for, a person…an epiphany…a miracle? If I believe Jesus is the master of my life, I must also believe that I am the servant, and that you are the servant. I am not your servant, nor are you mine. We are fellow servants, joint heirs, scripture says. When I try playing the master role that is when the burdens are the heaviest.
We are all born with appetite.
First we are fed, then we feed ourselves, then we learn to feed others. Nothing causes more imbalance than an appetite gone awry. We see it in every culture, every venue; food, money, drugs, liquor, power, love, acceptance and self esteem. Once a need is recognized, every fulfillment of it is temporary. It has ignited, and if satisfied for a moment soon it will rise again. The problem is when we take it into our own hands to fulfill and manage it. We think because we have the need, then we have the entitlement and we make the means. We then make the rules, not only for ourselves, but for others. We have taken on the role of master. We have become a slave to the appetite, and in some cases, breed a contempt for it. If I take the role, I must bear also the responsibility and the consequence. The trouble is, now the consequences affect others and run like water into other’s lives. It is unstoppable and uncontrolled.
Genesis is the only account that makes any valid sense.
God created man in His image, with a free will, and with that free will, disobeyed because of an appetite ignited. It was the appetite to question and to disbelieve what their creator had told them. When they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because they would then live eternally in a sinful state, it was necessary and merciful to be expelled from the Garden of Eden. It was a gift of God to send His son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior. He is the only one able to provide sinners access to a Holy God.
Learning should never stop. It is wonderful to see growth, but it is also quite painful.
I looked at a book of poems I had written. I read it through carefully. By the end of it my observations of it left me so disappointed. The errors in punctuation, the words chosen, the outlay, the print, everything looked flawed! How could I have missed those things? When I chose to dwell on it and chew myself up a little more, I began to realize that I was seeing the flaws now because since then and now I had grown. Looking back and not only seeing the mistake, but admitting and acknowledging it is called growth. The pain comes when you are at a standstill. Ok, I have grown, but still don’t know what to do to fix it, or where to go from where I am now.
With Christ as my Savior, I still have my appetites. I still can, and do let them have the best of me at times. In the learning of Him I learn I am not the master, He is. I know as I cannot stand the strength of many of the waves in the ocean, I cannot bear the weight of my own burdens, much less yours, unless I remain a servant.
I know I will continue to learn from the waves. They are completely subject to the power that drives them. I am subservient only as I am willing. That sometimes gets the best of me. He is still the master, however. Nothing can change His role over my soul.
