When the current of hard times and trials comes to pull you away from what you know as safety and comfort it is easy to drift farther than you every intended to. The waves are fun to play in at first until you turn around and see how far away you are from shore. The same is true with our lives as Christians; once we begin to drift it seems harder and harder to swim back to shore.
Recently I was texting a friend who mid conversation asked me how I was doing; I truly didn’t know how to answer. So many waves had hit me back to back that I honestly never ever turned around to see how far I had gone. This question made me sit and ponder how I was actually doing. I was drifting. That was my actually response, “I’m drifting.” This led to an open conversation about why I was drifting, a difficult thing to face, but intensely needed in my life. I had no idea how far I had gone and no idea how to get back.
Often times our drifting looks more like busyness and boredom; “I’m to busy to pray,” or “reading the bible is boring,” these are confessions that I know majority of you reading have had. It’s just not something we acknowledge often.
So why is drifting considered a bad thing? Why did I feel the need to internally beat myself up for confessing to a friend that my relationship with God was dissipating due to my current circumstance? Drifting isn’t necessarily a terrible thing, because when you finally turn around and see how far you are from shore a life boat comes to rescue you. There is joy in drifting; not because of the actually drift, but because of the rescue that follows it.
God neither asks us for perfection nor does He expect it from us. He knows that there will be times when the waves hit us so hard we drift farther out then we anticipated. He knows that we will feel empty at times, and loose interest in pursuing after Him. Yet nothing keeps Him from pursuing after us. No matter if you in the depth of sea with no land in sight or you are sitting bay side next to the Father; He will always pursue you.
At the end Psalm 23, David proclaims “Your goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” All the days. Even when some of those days are spent far away from the Lord, He still sends His goodness and mercy your way.
Oh how easy it is to drift, how simple it is to not fight with current. Don’t let the waves overtake you; you have a strong and almighty God on your side. A roaring lion to help fight the way and bring you back to the safety of the shore.
God, thank you for pursuing after me.
-V
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