swiming against the tides

I love tides. I spent my summer playing in tide pools in Cape Cod Bay. We rented a cottage in Brewster, a little town in  Cape Cod Massachusetts. The bay is wide and shallow so when the tide goes on the sand bar literally stretches for miles.

Each day we would wait for the water to pull back and expose the sea bed and we would race out like a conquering army with buckets to plunder clams, shells, and whatever was left flopping or stinking on the wet sand. The bolder and older folks in town would walk farthest out following the water and race it back in. I would dream and plan that one day I would walk out to the edge of the earth with them, my rubber raft in tow so as to have a safety net in case the tide got the better of me.

You can't stop the tide.

This was the lesson that Jesus was giving the religious leaders when he came to heal. The tides of God pulled back the waters covering their hearts and exposed the bedrock of their soles. He found little treasure. His buckets were empty.

Jesus came to heal and restore. He came to save lives, not kill. He brought the tides of God's restoration and they tried to swim against it.  They were drowning people.

He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 

2 Corinthians 3:6

The Law of God is like a tide in that it exposes our true nature and the Grace of God returns the water back over us covering up all the dirt. We cannot tell the tide what to do (1 Cor. 4:1-7). Even when we feel as if we were left high and dry by God, his plan continues to roll. (Genesis 41:1-13).

Let the tides of Lent have their way. Allow God to pull back the waters and look at yourself. Do this without fear, for the Living Water covers us. Don't swim against it. Go with it my friends. Go with it. 

You cannot stop the tides.