Thoughts from Low Tide

One of my favorite activities to do with the family is to wander along the beach during low tide. At high tide, the beach is mainly grapefruit-sized rocks littered with rope, shells, occasional buoys, and various other flotsam. At low tide, all of that is there, too — but closer to the water, there is also smooth, shimmering black-chocolate sand. The sand, while it is still damp, is easy to walk on, and contains all sorts of treasures. We frequently find sand dollars, jelly fish, various shells, and colorful rocks. Once, we even discovered a worm that was clearly not something any of us had seen before.
The low-tide area is in some ways a whole new world. Separate from the higher area of the beach, with its ankle twisting rocks and nautical litter, the sand is smooth and simple, yet holds in its simplicity precious treasures anticipating discovery.
This reminds me of a quote that someone shared with me someplace along the line—”I don’t care a fig for simplicity that comes before complexity. But for the simplicity that comes after complexity, I would give my life.” I believe we are called to the latter —the type of simplicity that comes only after working through some ankle-busting complexities that otherwise inhibit our relationship with God.
In the same way that you can’t get to the low-tide sands without first wading through the jumbled rocks and rubble of the high-tide zone, you can’t appreciate a simplicity of life in Christ without wading through the complexity of our sin, fallenness, and self-stored baggage.
Simplicity in Christ is best stated in Romans 14:8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.
If we live and die knowing that we are the Lord’s, then living or dying, we are His—that is simple living!
We are called as Christians to this type of faith—this type of living and dying. We are called to low-tide living—knowing we are ever seeking to move toward this simplicity in Christ.
We are also called to the new world—called to something that none of us has ever seen before. We get glimpses of where we are going in the hopes and promises of the New Testament—a new creation—a new Jerusalem—a holy priesthood—a new heaven—and new earth. These promises are of Shalom—the old Hebrew concept of life as God intended it.
If this is our hope, and our calling, is it not also our proclamation? This is the hope of God’s new creation: not proclaiming things as they are or as they’ve always been — but with great faith and confidence in things yet unseen, to be proclaiming things as they should be according to God’s heart and plan.
Watching the Water,
Pastor Dan