Surfing Or Connecting?

Much of life is mere surfing: we skim from one surface to another. However, in the process, we miss many precious details. We surf the flowers, but miss their intricate beauty. We surf past neighbours, but never really know them. We surf over our loved ones, but fail to grasp their hearts' passions and burdens. We even surf God. We may skim over God from one Sunday to another, from one hymn to another. Yet we never really grasp and know God because our surfing habits keep us from being truly connected with Him. We become deprived of the blessings and benefits available to us.

A habit of surfing across life can cause us to become disconnected from much of what life offers. We can even become disconnected from ourselves, never truly knowing what it is to be alive — to live. In this condition, we cannot be who we, as believers, are meant to be.

Surely, the apostle Paul sensed this risk when he wrote the following two prayers for the church:

Ephesians 1:17-19a – I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. (NIV 2011)

Ephesians 3:17b-19 – I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (NIV 2011)

Indisputably, our well-being, as well as the well-being of Christ's church, depends on connection — with God, with one another, with ourselves, and with His created order! With that in mind, we do well to pray fervently for one another, just as Paul prayed.

May each of us hunger for a deeply-rooted connection with God. And may we experience the rich joy of abiding in Him.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
       – C. Austin Miles

That's definitely not surfing. It's connection!

Prayer: O Lord, we ask You to give us a hunger for a well-rooted connection with You, that we may know You better. Amen.