for Christ's sake, let's surf!

God gives us personalities and desires, not just physical bodies. He is smart, God is. He wants to be heard. He wants to be found.

God gave me a passion for surfing long before he gave me a passion for himself. It began when I was a little kid who spent his summers body surfing at Nausett Beach on Cape Cod. I was the kid who thought it was fun to get trashed in shore break. Each night I would dig a pound of sand out of my ears. I would watch the surfers with envy. I would play Beach Boy records, buy puca shell necklaces from tourist traps and wear Senior Lopez pullover shirts.

But I was a Connecticut boy, landlocked and longing.

Then one day in a bookstore I found "the book", a copy of Surfer Magazine. I cut all the pictures out and plastered my wall. I filled out every little annoying card inside and soon my  Connecticut mailbox was stuffed with advertisements for all things surf.

I eventually went to college on the East End of Long Island. One day a friend let me borrow his old Hawaiian Design single fin pin tail (all I knew it was  surf board) and after that I was wet almost every day for seven years. I chased every swell on the East Coast.

To make this short, the God I wasn't looking for chased after me. He didn't turn me into a church kid. God used me, all of me, for His glory. He's good like that.

My passion for surfing didn't diminish, it changed. It was no longer an escape but an entrance into the heart of God. It became a place of prayer, worship and adoration. It became a place where God showed me His glory in dancing dolphins, lazy pelicans, sunrises and sunsets. He revealed deep mysteries while surfing full-moon sessions in glowing algae. I learned of the spiritual life along with the tides; always changing, always constant.

The waves became a place to share my faith were few others could reach. I wasn't smacking people with my board saying "turn or burn!" but folks would start talking and well, when you are surrounded by His glory how can you not talk about it?

My faith grew and was watered by the sea. My passion for life didn't go out, it grew brighter. To be honest folks along the way tried to harness me and to my fault I let them. But as I age and grow in my faith I am seeing more and more that I am to enjoy God in the way he created me to enjoy him. This gives him great delight.

I didn't place the lamp he lit inside a church, He stuck it on a surfboard for all the world (Mark 4:21-34)