Tip of My Iceberg

A Colorado boy, Beck, and his family have been spending vacation time on the east coast. He’s used to mountain trails and hikes, colder climes, and snow and chill.

The ocean offers a whole new environment for him to explore.

He went boogie boarding for the first time. Fully outfitted for the baking sun, his pale skin covered completely with gear to protect and provide floating potential, he embarked on a new adventure.

And loved it.

Beck invested himself wholeheartedly in learning a new skill, enjoying his time in the ocean, trying again and again on the boogie board. Grins abounded.

Until he couldn’t stay awake any longer. His mom was there to cuddle him as he relaxed in her arms. Resting. Pausing in his ocean adventure.

We all become tired when we’re so completely engaged in the endeavors we love. It’s easier to give ourselves fully to what we enjoy than the other less satisfying tasks of life.

But fun isn’t the only thing to wear us out. Life in general so often feels heavy, with all that needs to be done, expectations to be met, and responsibilities that need to be fulfilled.

Life wears us down.

It feels as if the world is looking for wholeness, to make right the wrongs, to make fair that which is unequal, to create hope in spaces of dark despair.

But we live in a broken world, inhabited by broken people who are neither all good nor all bad. And we have an enemy who seeks to destroy us, whether we agree he exists or not.

Satan, an angel cast out of heaven because he longed to be like God, seeks to destroy God’s goodness in the world by attacking His people. Often not obviously, but subtley and insidiously as he wears us down.

“And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws…” Daniel 7:25

The wearing down of the saints; all those who seek to know God through Jesus. To know hope. The goodness and beauty of this world reflects God in all His glory. The evil that exists seeks to undermine the wonder and grandeur of all that God is. We live in the tension of good and evil always.

And it wears on our hearts, souls, and minds.

We all have options we can pursue, for we have the potential to do good and do bad, depending on where our hearts are and what we choose to do.

Having Jesus in our lives, inviting Him in to strengthen and encourage us in our daily challenges, can lift the weariness of life.

Then we can be freed up to invest in fun.