{when oceans rise}

wednesday we went to the ocean. Leah, Amy, Anna, Emily, and I. 

endless sea met endless sky as the laughter of friends, old and new, floated across the waves. 

we stood in the shallows, close enough to shore to touch the ocean floor, and when the swells came, if the wave did not break, you would jump and the momentum carried you over without taking you under. 

but while the momentum carried you over, it also moved you backwards, closer to shore.

and at one moment during our time there, i caught up with Amy in time to hear her cheerfully challenge the two standing by her to a game of 'stand straight and don't move your feet when the waves come!'

i flung back, laughing, unthinking, 'that's impossible! you'd need an anchor!' 

she swung around and smiled at me. 'mhmm. it's hard because it sucks you in and pulls you back'

so for the next few minutes we tried, unsuccessfully, to stand our ground despite the buffet of the ocean, eventually giving up and giving in to the push and pull of the water which surrounded us.

and as i mused on the unpredictability of the ocean, and how hard it was not to move when the swells were so strong, i was suddenly reminded of a line from a song. 

'we have this hope as an anchor for our souls. our God will stand unshakeable'. 

my eyes widened as realization struck. 

see, it is impossible to stand up straight, without moving, in the middle of the waves. but. we have this hope as an anchor for our souls, that God will stand unshakeable. 

we, in ourselves, cannot help but move when life's waves buffet us. when trouble and fear and failure and pain and sorrow roll like billows over the place where we endeavor to stand. 

it is hard enough to stand straight, even when there are no waves! 

but add the waves, and it is impossible.

you would need an anchor. something to grab hold of, something which cannot move and will not shift when the waves swing your way. 

but what is our anchor? 

Hebrews 6 and i have the answer. 

'it is impossible for God to lie...we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain'. 

God will not...God cannot lie. God cannot change. He is steadfast, He will never waver. He is faithful. He is our refuge, He is unshakeable. 

that is our hope. that is what anchors us when the waves come crashing down. 

because our God is unshakeable, we need not be greatly shaken. 

so when the waves come 'to attack a man, to batter him like a leaning wall, a tottering fence', we have an unshakeable stronghold which will always stand.

and if we remember, and run to Him, we will not be shaken. 

Because He is not shaken, we do not need to be shaken.

we can plant our feet; firmly anchored in the hope we have in Him - the hope that He is strong, that He will hold us - and because of that hope, we will not be shaken when the wind and waves rise against us. 

when oceans rise, we have this hope as an anchor for our soul: our God will stand unshakeable.

and because of that? He alone is my rock and my fortress.

so i will not be shaken. 

{Bravery and Omaha Beach}

"...years ago in the thin light of grey dawn, more than 1,000 small craft took to a rough sea on a day that will be forever a day of bravery. On that June morning the young of our nations stepped out on those beaches below and into history. As long as freedom lives, their deeds will never die"

- former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown

because today is the 6th of June, 72 years to the day since the Allied invasion on the beaches of Normandy, the beginning of the end of the war which had ravaged Europe almost beyond recognition.

the day men charged for the cliffs while caught in the carnage of unspeakable slaughter, and with their sacrifice won freedom for those of us to follow.

because bravery doesn't mean the absence of fear.

bravery doesn't mean that you feel fearless.

bravery means throwing your all into the fight, despite the urge to run and hide. bravery means running as fast as you can into the fray while your comrades drop round you, and not turning traitor in the opposite direction.

and the end result of the brave...perhaps not the immediate result, but the end result.. is freedom. freedom that thousands of them never lived to see, having given their all to purchase ours.

see, Normandy was when the free world fought back. Normandy was when the war turned, the tipping scales favored the right. 

it wasn't the end - not yet. there was still another year of fighting. but it was the beginning. it was when men stood up and said 'no more', willing to prove with their deaths that evil would not have the final word, and ruin would not reign supreme. 

so may we live worthy of that sacrifice.

may we be brave and strong and may we walk free, and may the memory of their courage call us to dare to never give up, no matter the odds, no matter how hard the fight, no matter what part of us dies in the struggle. 

because freedom is worth it. freedom is always worth it. 

they believed that. 

do we?