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As I walked along the Mississippi beach with my family earlier this summer I saw a familiar sight. Every few feet or so I saw the clear jelly-looking blobs washed ashore by the tides ebb and flow. Once filled with poison and dangerous to the touch, though now only lifeless blobs of vanity, tossed about by the waves. And then as I lifted my eyes off the ground and out into surf surging forward with the force of the rising tides I viewed another familiar sight. Every few minutes or so I’d catch a glimpse of a silvery-gold flying fish glimmering in the sunlight reflected on the water.
The flying fish leaps high in the air on the wings of the wind with a freedom that most people only dream of having. As Christians, though, we should seek to always be more like the flying fish than a jelly fish. Instead of being a lifeless blob tossed about by the waves of life, we should seek the true freedom we have in Christ Yeshua, our Savior. We need to be Jesus Fish! We need to quit letting others control us with the waves of their emotions and strive to follow our Lord, who gives us freedom from all those commands of humanity; do this and do that.
When we seek to always live up to others expectations of us, instead of obeying what God truly wants of us, then we are indulging in a very poisonous form of idolatry. An empty vanity that seeks to put our own reputation above what God wants us to become. When we are more concerned about what others think about us than obeying what God told us to do, then we become nothing more than a spineless blob of vanity tossed about by every wave of their emotions. But if we truly put aside our own reputation to serve God with all of our being, then we can become more like the flying fish that soars above the tumultuous waves of life.
When God’s Spirit is the wind beneath our wings, then we will certainly fly higher and farther than we ever hoped to. Yet we cannot look at our present circumstances in hopelessness, but in the faith that God has promised better things for our future, whether in this life or the next. When we seek eternal rewards rather than the praise and honor that comes from our fellow human beings then we have become a faithful worker of God. And as Christ our Savior suffered and died for living a truthful and perfect life, we also, as faithful followers will sometimes suffer persecution, even when we strive to live a truthful and honorable life.
Christ told us that if the head of the household was called by the name of the devil, how much more will those of the household be called by those kinds of names. Christ was called Beelzebub by those who claimed to know God, but didn’t. Christ was also called a crazy person by some of those people. So we, as Christians, shouldn’t be surprised when others mock us for our faith, and living a lifestyle, that to them, may seem extreme. We don’t walk the same path as they do and are set apart for Christ. So we can’t expect them to understand the choices we make that seem unreasonable to them. But even if the whole of humanity is walking down the paved road to destruction, we need to be committed to walking down the lonely path of footprints in the sand, which leads to Christ.
We cannot be spineless jellyfish when serving Christ. We must have backbone enough to rise above the tides of sinful humanity and not be poisoned by the whims of worldly people. As Christians we are called to be separate from the ways of the world, though we must remain in it for the time being.
There are few times in our lives when we can truly rise above those tides, but we must strive for perfection, even though we will never obtain it this side of heaven. Sometimes, we must soar above our earthly home on the wings of faith in order to rise above those tides that would toss us onto the beach of life, where we are eventually immobilized until we die. We must be ready to take a stand for all that we believe and know to be true, even when it seems the whole world is against us. We must be willing to be crucified with Christ, so that we may also share in the resurrection on that glorious day of our Christ’s return.
I loved the article. I think I especially needed to read this line today for encouragement for this tough year:
“Yet we cannot look at our present circumstances in hopelessness, but in the faith that God has promised better things for our future, whether in this life or the next.”
Thank you!