The Joy of Struggle

Disclaimer: First off…this morning I woke up at 4am, travelled 1000 miles home to Washington state and now here I am trying to edit a blog post…so I hope my delirious and tired writing will be interesting for someone. Secondly friends, I’m writing about surfing, which well I am so NOT good at surfing. Of the 15 times I’ve ever gone, I think I’ve only actually caught a wave twice. BUT, I absolutely love love love to surf. It is probably one of my favorite things ever.

Anyway, yesterday I headed out and figured I would try my luck with short boarding….HA (please insert laughter here.) Needless to say, I didn’t catch a single wave and today my arms feel like they’re about to fall off, my ribs are sore, my forehead is completely sunburnt, and I’m totally exhausted, but it was still absolutely amazing. I think I’m still in the “honeymoon phase” of surfing, where even if the waves are terrible or I make a total fool of myself, I still have the best time.

Yesterday while I was surfing, I got absolutely thrashed. The waves were not even that big but I was a wreck. Taking a 6-month break from surfing really took a toll on this gals wimpy arms. I fought and I struggled and I felt completely beaten down just trying to paddle out past the break. As I was paddling, I felt like I was just getting destroyed by what I thought were “some really big waves”. But once I finally got out past the break, I laughed as I realized the waves were actually reeeeally small.

 As I sat out there on my board, the sun shining on my face, the salty air blowing through my tangled hair, and the waves gently crashing on shore, I realized how life and surfing are so similar. Now, I don’t want to lose you here with my cheesiness…but really, just hear me out. We spend so long trying to battle our circumstances and push through the difficult spots…when in all reality sometimes all we have to do is let go, sit back, and enjoy the beauty all around us and the magnitude of what we have accomplished. We spend so long paddling and paddling through the tough stuff that we forget to look back and realized that those waves we were fighting through, well they don’t look so bad one we get past their breaking point.

This realization is absolutely heart changing. The truth is that, God does not forsake us in these times of trouble, but rather He strengthens us to go through these troubled waters, with the promise to be right beside us the whole time. Though sometimes He may take us on a path that seems so long and so hard, when we get to where we’re going, we can look back and realize that these challenging times, these troubled days, these rugged waves we had to paddle through, they really weren’t so bad after all. And it is in this crazy moment that we can often find an unexplainable joy in our struggles…

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. —James 1:2-4