Finding Peace in the Deep
There’s just something about the ocean, don’t you agree?
Maybe it’s the approach of summer, or maybe it’s the fact I saw a beach on TV yesterday, but regardless, I’ve got the coast on my mind. I can almost feel my feet atop the wet sand, a wave rolling in, leaving them covered for just a moment before retreating.
The waves seem to call us into the deep water. Beckoning, leading the way. And as we follow their lead, out past where they break, if we submerge ourselves, it’s as if we find a stillness though everything around us is moving. Like the ocean’s surface, the world is always moving and crashing, which is why we need a constant, steady, unchanging, trustworthy source of peace and love and hope.
We need Jesus.
“Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me” (Psalm 42:7).
A few years ago, I did some research on this verse, trying to understand what “deep calls to deep” meant, and I scribbled this alongside Psalm 42:7 in my Bible, “The things of God calling to the things of me. Reaching past my flesh and deep into my spirit.” He calls us into the deep because that’s where He is, and that’s where we can see His face most clearly and know His heart most deeply. Our souls long for the deep, but in order to find it, we must often navigate the waterfalls, waves, and breakers that surround us. The world is not without struggle and heartbreak, hard things surely come, but I find comfort in this: these waterfalls, waves, and breakers are also His, sweeping over us and leading the way to the deep, reminding us of our need for His presence.
We have a choice. We can stand at the edge of peace, with it’s waves lapping at our feet before retreating and allowing our anxieties to resurface, or we can choose the deep, the place where we are fully, constantly covered and protected by the peace and presence of God. When we are submerged with and surrounded by God, His peace doesn’t leave room for our anxiety.
Even as I write, I think this all makes sense, but it also doesn’t. And for today, that is okay - the deep water isn’t always clear, anyway.
Peace doesn’t always mean we have clarity.
Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). I’m thankful that Jesus doesn’t give as the world gives because as we’ve seen, even this week, the world isn’t doling out kindness and peace. However, I know that peace (and joy and hope) are our birthright because of who our Father is.
Maybe this means we keep our hearts and eyes open to the battles and needs on the shore, but we also fight to keep our souls in the deep.
Maybe it’s in the deep that these things well up in us and spill onto the shore like ways, washing over the lives of people who haven’t found the deep place yet.
And maybe, that’s how we learn to give as Jesus gave, not as the world gives, but using the currency of Heaven.
