Editor’s
journey
Treading water —
Spiritually
SPRINGFIELD,
MO. — As a teenager I loved riding the waves at the beach
in Santa Cruz, Calif. My brothers and I couldn’t afford
a surfboard, so we learned to bodysurf. Sometimes we’d tread
water for five minutes waiting to catch the perfect wave that
would carry us to shore.
Regrettably,
some believers today seem to be treading water spiritually. Perhaps
they experienced “revival” in the 1990s, and now they’re
merely floating along until they can catch the “next wave
of the Spirit.” One person said it this way: “The
Holy Spirit is allowing us to catch our breath for a while until
He pours out His Spirit again.”
Quite
frankly, we don’t need to catch our breath. We don’t
have to wait for the “next wave” to experience more
of the Spirit and draw closer to Christ. We need more of Jesus
in our lives today.
The Spirit-filled
life is not like bodysurfing. We don’t float passively through
life until the next spiritual whitecap or mega-revival comes along.
As a kid, I learned that some whitecaps are disappointing. From
a distance they appear huge and powerful, but in the end they
don’t take you anywhere. The experience we should long for
is not a spiritual thrill ride or adrenaline rush, but rather
the lasting warmth that comes from having an intimate relationship
with our Savior.
Have you
been awaiting a revival atmosphere before seeking more of Jesus
in your life? Have you been waiting for headlines in this magazine
to proclaim, “We are in revival”? You don’t
need to tread water any longer. The Spirit desires to do a work
in your life today … and He’s urging you to get your
eyes off the waves and on the Master of the sea.
—
Hal Donaldson
