The Beach

Pastor Miller taught about “drifting” in our faith. That made me think about the ocean current, which led me to thinking of the beach, which lead me to thinking about our family vacation last summer at the beach, which lead me to thinking about the undercurrent just offshore ...whew, that was a lot of thinking. Your Mom and I loved watching you play/swim in the water, but we warned you about the undercurrent carrying you off. We said that you would not notice it until you looked up and saw you were farther down the beach from us. Sometimes you would not look up and did not notice how far away you were, so we would call your name to get your attention and show you how far you had drifted away. A lot of times you were surprised by how far you had drifted away from us. Sometimes there were more dangers involved with the drifting, such as an idiot with a fishing pole and a really large hook right next to us. During these times we watched you more closely so you would not experience what it was like to be a hooked fish.

Sin is like the undercurrent. Sometimes you play around with it and it carries you away from The Lord. Sometimes we “look up” and notice how far away we are, and we pray and repent (Heb. 2:1, “Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”). But sometimes we do not “look up” and we get far away (1Tim. 5:24, “The sins of some people are obvious, going before them into judgment, but for others, they show up later.”). There is no staying in one spot when you are in the current. So if you are not moving closer, you ARE moving away (James 4:8, “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners…”).Thankfully The Lord is always watching us (Psalm 37:18, “The Lord watches over the innocent day by day…”) and paying attention to the “undercurrent,” and when it starts to carry us away He gets our attention to show us that we have drifted away. Hopefully we hear Him trying to get our attention …before we drift into the really large hook or get swept away.

Love Ya,

Dad