Out of the Depths

Yesterday I had the good fortune of being out on a boat in the ocean with friends. Even though we live near the sea, sometimes I will forget its even there for weeks at a time. However, during our time yesterday, I was reminded of how important the ocean is to me and what a critical roll it has played in my life. Even though I am a devoted sailor and grew up messing about on the bay, the key role the ocean has had in my life is as a factor of my conversion. Prior to that time I was a steadfast agnostic, but the ocean was the large, unexplainable force in my life. Perhaps I even worshiped it. It was huge, powerful, deep, and held the promise of someday leading me away on an adventure. So it was that I spent many a night of my early adulthood sitting on the rocks above Pirates Cove gazing out over the sea, especially if the moon was full. That was my secret retreat and whenever I came up missing I was sure to be found there. It was also the place where I had countless conversations with friends who were attempting to love me into the family of God. In the end, I believe God used the song of the wind and the waves to whisper into the deepest places of my heart and draw me unto Him. It was after one of those long soul searching nights down alone by the shore that I finally made a decision to ask Jesus into my heart. Each of us discovers, or rather God reveals, some kind of metaphor or connection in our lives which leads us one day into His fold. For me, it was the ocean. May such wonders of creation always speak to our hearts ... and may we respond.

Out of the Depths
I feel so very small sometimes
when I look upon the sea
Imagining its vast expanse
its awesome power and majesty
The sea was my one first true love
and the thing that I adored
The wonder of it pierced my heart
and brought me to my Lord
For I would not believe in God
or trust that He could be
However those who claimed I should
sought to prevail upon me
Their arguments were well rehearsed
and true enough, I deemed
But I required something more
I lacked the key it seemed
Yet, God called upon His advocate
the mighty sea I loved so dear
Which softened up my heart in time
and sought to draw me near
How many times He called to me
as I sat upon the land
In a thundering voice I could not hear
but longed to understand
Countless nights I sat alone
and gazed across the sea
So unaware that every wave
was God's own call to me
Yet God wore down my disbelief
as ocean waves might do
And brought me to the moment when
my life-long search was through
He piloted my restless soul
to quiet waters and a quay
Where He came aboard my empty heart
and promised He would stay
And now, all these year later
I pause to look out on the swells
And thank God for the choice He brought me to
for it has served me well
I thank Him for the beauty
and the power of the sea
From which He chose to reach out
and take hold of such as me
May I ever gaze upon it and
in so doing, see His face
Rediscovering His majesty
and the wonder of His grace
By Frank Carpenter ©