letters from barabbas

Get your feet wet. 


My freshman year I went with Chi Alpha to the beach for Spring Retreat, and God really spoke to me with the ocean. There was this storm offshore and the sea was all wild and winter was still hanging in the air, and I was laughing on the beach with a dozen new friends when I was struck by a bolt of lightning offshore.
Well, I wasn't literally struck, but impressed, rather.
Suddenly the ocean seemed so powerful and terrifying, a monster to run from before I was devoured. And at the same time it was the one place I wanted to be more than any other, the safest place in the world. I wanted to run away to the mountains and never look back. I wanted to sit on the dry sand and stare at the waves, hypnotized. I wanted to play in the surf, flirting with the waves, always in control of how wet I got. I wanted to dive in and swim away from shore until I couldn't stay afloat anymore.
All at once.
And I realized that I felt a lot of the same things about God.
He was kind enough to minister to me in various ways throughout the following year, and this picture was taken at the next Spring Retreat. As you can see, I'd come to be a lot more comfortable with the ocean, and you'd be correct to assume that my relationship with its creator had improved in like manner.