Rachel's Viewfinder

For the longest time, it’s seems like God has asked me to float.  I’ve served in the Home Office in Charlotte, producing media for both new and veteran missionaries.  When I first started, I thought I was only going to work in Charlotte for a few short months, but God has had me here for two years.  In that time, I’ve learned trust and patience, as well as better skills for my ministry.  I’ve come to see how valuable and important the Home Staff is in completing the work the Lord has called us to.  I wouldn’t have learned those lessons if I had quickly gone to a new country and culture.

Earlier this year I took a surfing lesson in Cocoa Beach, FL.  A friend of mine took pictures of me surfing, and when I looked at them, the first thing I thought of was a rock.  A stiff, hard rock trying to stay afloat.  I was trying to hard!  Surfing isn’t about being in control; it’s about relaxing and letting the wave take you.  Yesterday I was in Myrtle Beach, SC, and I was practicing riding my boogie board into the wave and floating.  But I was holding on too tight.  I kept tipping, squeezing my board out from underneath me, tumbling through the waves.  Finally, the friend I was with looked at me and said, “Will you just relax?”

Later on in the day, I was out in the water again.  I had finally managed to relax!  I was floating and keenly sliding over the tops of the incoming waves with my yellow boogie board.  But it was time to start heading home, and time to leave the ocean.  I wanted one more wave before leaving.

One of my favorite surfing documentaries is “Step Into Liquid.”  In one of the interviews, surfer and board-maker Robert August talks about the sensation of the perfect wave and being the one person to ride it.  Eyes lighting up at the thought, he says, “You’re out there and you look up and suddenly, it’s the wave.  And you’re like, ‘It’s my wave! It’s coming to ME!’”  It’s the moment when the timing, the force and the rhythm are perfect and you catch the wave and ride it all the way in.

I was waiting for that wave.  It kept getting later and later, and I knew that wave was out there.  I could feel it.  Waves kept going by, but they weren’t right.  I knew it was coming.  There just had to be one more.  And suddenly, it came.  The wave was coming to me and I pushed off on my board, got moving and instantly flew forward on a rush of foam and water.  It was a perfect ride all the way in!  Talk about feeling stoked!  It was the last wave, the right wave, and it was mine.  My wave.

As I got up from the shallows, I had this quick thought: “It’s time to catch a wave.”

I looked back at the surf.  I had just caught The Wave and it was now time to go home.  And then I realized that it wasn’t my thoughts talking to me.  It was the Lord. 

SIM wants to send me to a new country very soon.  I don’t know how soon is “soon.”  I don’t even know where.  In talking about the possibilities, I could literally end up anywhere around the world.  Latin America, Asia, Africa…the options are all over the place.  I’m open to wherever I’m needed, but the whole thing about when and where—it’s like floating in the ocean.  I’m finally past the point of awkwardly blundering through the incoming waves and holding on too tight.  I’m floating in Charlotte, active in ministry and life.  But even though the moment of going somewhere new is so close, it’s not the right time yet.

Yet.  I thought about the wave I had just caught.  It came suddenly, without warning.  Sure, I was watching for it, but there was no predicting which wave it would be.  All I could do is catch it and ride wherever it took me.  God had just told me it was time to “catch a wave.”  I don’t know when that Wave is going to come, but I have a feeling it’s going to come soon.  Stoked.

(oh, and this is my 200th post.  :D)