merge: outside the wake

outside the wake

I remember going out on my grandparent’s 12-person boat on Black Lake in northern Michigan in late grade school.

There are the great memories of learning to water ski (thumbs up to go faster, thumbs down to go slower) and tying my swim trunks extra tight to avoid any mishaps when I fell.

My favorite place to water ski was outside the wake of the boat. It was always calmer and smoother outside the wake.

The challenge was always breaking over the crest of the wake to get there. Usually, that’s exactly when I would wipe out.

Getting out of the rough waters of the boat’s wake required going over the biggest rough spot of all before going into the “promised land” of the smooth glass-like waters outside the wake.

There have been times in my spiritual walk when it feels much the same. Usually, I’m trying to get up out of the water with all of might only to find myself in the choppy rough waters in the wake of the daily grind of life. I know my spiritual walk can and should be better than the choppy waters I was in marked by occasional prayer, rare study of the Bible and lots of “thumb down” to slow the speed of the chaos in my life. Many times it felt comfortable there in the wake of life. I always knew that it would be smoother and more tolerable outside the wake, yet going over that “big” wave to get there seemed to always hold me back. Being more spiritual and connected to God was always a desire, yet I couldn’t bring myself to take the right steps.

But you know, I have to be honest. When life started going faster and the years started slipping by and Lara & I started having children and then they started growing faster and faster I realized that it was time to stop staying in the comfortable wake of life. I needed to step up my spiritual walk with God. My connectedness to God was marginal. It was dull. I needed to be intentional about growing closer to Him. I couldn’t keep waiting for that day when I woke up and was suddenly “spiritual”. I needed to move outside of my comfort zone and get over the big wave.

I needed a relationship with God that was more meaningful than “Please give me this and please do that.” It dawned on me that here I was constantly asking God for something yet I never did what He asked me to do. No wonder life was so choppy. Life was about me. I needed to get outside of the wake.

And when I took those intentional actions towards investing in a true relationship with God and doing for God rather than constantly asking and taking from God; I found my spiritual life to be much smoother and less choppy. The storms of life certainly come up now and then, yet outside that wake, in an intentional relationship with God, the choppy seas are much easier to endure.