I’ve never been much on surfing. My ideal day with saltwater involves a comfy chair and an umbrella or a sugary candy in wax wrapping, but thanks to my wonderful new family additions, I had the chance to experience a screening for the upcoming movie “Soul Surfer” this past week. For those of you remember Bethany Hamilton (the girl whose arm bitten off by a shark), this film is the story of her life before and after the attack. Before the shark attack, she was a steadfast spirit, loved and adored, and with a well-drawn plan for her own life. After the shark attack, she awoke minus her left arm to the sound of some doctor telling her that she would have to learn to do everything differently. Her plan did not include that. Her father offers the following advice: “the smartest surfers know that the best wave is yet to come.”
I can’t help but feel a connection to Bethany’s frustration when she bucks the advice of the experts. Learn to do things differently? Why? Things work fine as they are now. My plan is to do what I do, enjoy life, and be as good as I can be. There couldn’t have been a more perfectly divine time for me to see that movie.
Why fix it if it ain’t broke? I’ve heard these questions so many times as people are challenged to change and improve their lives in the eyes of God. Many pastors recognize this sentiment in their sermons as they attempt to lead people to Christ. “Lead me to Christ?” you ask. “I’m a good person, I do the best I can do, and well, I just like to enjoy life and have a good time,” you might say. If I could rewind the last decade and a half, you would hear that thought resonate in my head and heart repeatedly.
So many activities that I participated in were met with the “what’s wrong with having a little fun?” or the “I’m just having a good time” rationale. Little did I know, those activities and a large handful of the people sharing them with me, were whittling away at my soul and my future a miniscule amount at a time. Now I would have never admitted, or perhaps even acknowledged, this occurrence until I experienced a shocking entrance into a new world.
It turns out that those “things” were deterrents meant to prevent me from living my best life. Yes, my life was swaggerly fabulicious in the eyes of most, but somehow always came up short of “full”, and full of restless, when the lights were low and my mind was quiet. Even when I discovered years ago that those uncomfortable empty moments were cues that I was starving my spiritual self and my soul, I would place the I-went-to-church-today band-aid or the I’m a good-person-ointment on it and continue the rest of the time just as I had. Still, I was restless.
It wasn’t until God forced me to try things differently that I realized why I was unquenched, restless, and frustrated; I had been fighting Him all along. The truth is, I was afraid to do things differently. What if people walked away? What if I was lonely? What if I hit some emotional bottom of boredom and had nothing or no one that was familiar to help me out because I tried things a new way, God’s way, and that wasn’t the popular thing to do for fun?
I got my answer thanks to Bethany Hamilton. Some will walk away. Some, you will have to walk away from as well, or at least love from a distance. Some of those things that used to bring you so much temporary pleasure will no longer fill your spirit. Thanks to that stubborn strand in my genetic make-up, God knew that it would be frightening and difficult for me to “learn to do everything differently” on a whim. He knew that, so He provided a fool-proof way; He took my left arm too. It took more time than I planned, and didn’t exactly fit into what I thought SHOULD be my plan, so I spent some time on my own little surfboard thrashing about aimlessly in a big, shark-infested ocean. Once I finally surrendered to it, I realized quickly that “the best wave is yet to come,” and you know what? I can see it on the horizon.
