Where Has All the Ocean Gone?

I got a reasonably early start to my day today.  After a few minutes doing some cleaning up at the church building, I drove to my “second office”.  This is the spot with a little gravel pullout and it overlooks the Pacific Ocean.  It has become my second office for a couple of reasons.  One, it is a beautiful view with the vastness of the ocean and the waves crashing onto the rocky shore.  And two, it is one of the only places that my cell phone has service. 

And as I park head in to my spot positioning my car between the two big boulders protecting people like me from Thelma and Louise-ing it over the cliff, I look up to  see a familiar site, but it looks starkly different this morning.

There is a low fog that has moved in blocking my view of the miles wide span of the ocean.  Visibility was at about twenty feet or so.  I cannot see the horizon, the sky or any of the blue that is our majestic Pacific.  I can barely make out some of the rocky parts of the shore and the white of the waves splashing over them.

It was a very bizarre sight and almost looked very foreign to me as if I was parked somewhere else.  But I was sure I was at the right spot.  There are the boulders fencing off the edge of the cliff.  There is the park bench that I sit at from time to time as weather allows.  There is the all too familiar No Camping sign.  Yep, this is the spot all right.  I just can’t see the ocean due to the fog. 

I can’t see the waves coming in.  I can’t see the calmness of the waters connecting horizontally with the blueness of the day sky.  No boats visible, no caps of white, no glimmer from the sun reflecting off of the waters.  But, all of that being said, the ocean was still out there.  It was just for the moment obstructed.

There are times in our faith when it seems that God is eerily quiet, as if He had stepped out for a bit to fetch His newspaper from the porch.  Or maybe it seems longer than that, perhaps He is taking a long overdue vacation.  Or worst case scenario, maybe He left and doesn’t want to be friends anymore, because of something offensive that we had done.  Maybe He just got bored with us.  After all I am not very interesting.

But be of good cheer.  He has not left, He has not abandoned, He still wants us, and He still likes us.  Sometimes, for whatever reason, He seems quiet.  And sometimes, His quietness seems to coincide with our needing Him the most.  What’s that all about?

But quietness doesn’t mean that He is gone.  Just because you can’t see Him, Just because you can’t feel Him, just because you don’t sense His presence or His direction for your life, does not mean that He has vanished or He is apathetic to your situation.

He is there, just as I knew the ocean was there.  Even if I couldn’t see it.  I knew the ocean was there because the place I was at was where I have seen it many times over.  I knew because all of the indicators were there. The pull out, the boulders, the sign, the rocky cliff and the beached waves.

My advice for you is this.  Whenever you can’t seem to see God and His working in your life, check your surroundings.  Make sure you are in the place where you know you have experienced Him before.  Are the things around you those indicators that this is where you have met Him before?  If not, then go to that spot. He will be there.  Is so, and visibility seems limited, you may have to wait until the fog has lifted.