Jesus, the Real "Prince of Tides"

"Everyone one of us is called upon, probably many times, to start a new life. A frightening diagnosis, a marriage, a move, loss of a job...And onward full tilt we go, pitched and wrecked and absurdly resolute, driven in spite of everything to make good on a new shore. To be hopeful, to embrace one possibility after another-that is surely the basic instinct..Crying out: High Tide! Time to move out into the glorious debris. Time to take this life for what it is." - Barbara Kingsolver, High Tide in Tucson



Moving out into brave, new worlds, embracing hopeful possibilities, and being pushed out of the net of safety. This isn't a novel concept created by the zeitgeist of the new millennium, intended primarily for post-modern listeners, but, rather, a spiritual philosophy that hearkens back to the beginning of creation itself. In Genesis 1:28, God calls man and woman to "be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it." Adam and Eve begin a new adventure into exploring and organizing the new earth that God has fashioned especially for them and their future generations. When Adam and Eve sin in Chapter 3, God banishes them from their ideal spot on earth, the Garden of Eden, and they are left to create a less than perfect existence outside of God's original plan. The way I see it, resilience and reinvention was built into humankind long ago and has remained a part of our DNA through the centuries.



As the author Barbara Kingsolver expresses, life change and exploration is rather like a high tide, a current of ocean that takes us to places we have never gone and stretches us to our very limits....till we are consumed, exhausted, and emotionally spent. However, it is only when those moments come that we begin to see ALL that God intends for us to see and that we BECOME all that HE has made us to be.



When we risk our hearts, and, nay, our very lives, to embark on a courageous journey of self-discovery, the only certainty we have as we travel is the companionship of our valiant captain, Jesus Christ. He rides the ebb and flows of raging currents an delivers us safely to new shores. He see beyond our present whirlpool to the distant horizon of blessing and transformation. His presence is both a calming wind or a raging wave, depending on where we are at along this journey. He gives us what we need, just when we need it. Our Prince manages the tide and "makes all things new" (Revelation 21:5) O Captain, my captain!