OK, it's obvious by now that I am a die-hard surfer. You pretty much have to be obsessed to surf in the snow. (By the way, I'd like to thank my Norwegian surfer buddies for enlightening me to the fact that you should always show up to the beach in cold weather with a thermos of scalding-hot water. Pour it in your booties and heat 'em up before you put them on and, viola - toasty warm feet for at least an hour!) Some people wonder how we surf in cold water and cold weather with big sharks and heavy waves. Well, if you've ever caught even one wave, you know why we do it. It's a feeling that is indescribable.
Unlike any other activity that I've ever experienced, surfing is literally an act of nature. The process of catching a moving wave, standing up and letting it's energy propel you along, all the while flirting with the very real possibility of being crushed by the source of your momentum is...well, I can't do it justice with words. You literally feel like you are a part of nature itself. You can feel the heartbeat of something so much bigger than you and it is at the same time both humbling and electrifying.Surfers often talk about feeling 'one with the ocean'. It's true. As you are picked up by a wave and ride its hydrodynamic energy, you do feel like you are a part of the ocean...of the planet itself. That wave may have travelled for thousands of miles before it came to where you were sitting and reached water shallow enough to cause it to curl and break. It probably saw thousands of other living creatures before it gave you the privilege of joining it on the final seconds of its long journey. It may have had its course altered by powerful storms and may have experienced several different climates. It probably witnessed acts, both natural and human, of cruelty and kindness. The stories it could tell you...for surfers, the stories it does tell you. Every surfer has trouble putting into words the things that waves share with them. But each wave brings this richness of being...of life...and the only way to hear its story is to hop on and listen. The experience makes you feel very, very...small. And blessed.
This is probably the reason that surfing so often is compared to a religion. It actually does flirt with being one. What surfers feel as that wave scoops them up, whether they know it or not, is the Spirit of our Creator. Some of us, like myself, know our Creator personally, and have the means and knowledge with which to process the rush of feelings and emotions with which surfing showers us. Each session becomes a worship experience as our obsession turns our eyes and hearts towards God - the Creator of the oceans and Supplier of waves. Others, lacking a personal relationship with the Creator but feeling the same emotions, turn their attention toward the creation and the ocean itself becomes the object of their worship. The point is, surfing forces us to acknowledge something way bigger than ourselves and the only natural, logical response is one of reverence and worship.
So, every cell of my body lives for the next wave that I will be able to ride. To commune with Creation in such a personal way is to catch a glimpse into God's heart. I feel His thoughts as I am able to enjoy His Creation. Hence, the 'Surfing Lessons' blog entries. Surfing opens my mind and my heart to receive what His voice would whisper to me. And I am learning some great stuff. I know that surfers walk a fine line between worshipping the Creator and the created. But I also know that as long as I use surfing as a channel for getting closer to my Creator...keep my eyes on Him, if you will...that He will continue to use surfing to put His thoughts into my head and my heart.
Why am I saying all of this? Well, I have and will continue to shy away from being too preachy in my blog writing. The thoughts that I cast into cyberspace are just that...my thoughts from my slightly deranged head and a heart that has been broken by Life and mended by my God. As I gather more and more experience on this journey with Christ, I am hopefully getting better at tapping into His thoughts and His heart. Sometimes He slaps you right upside the head with a lesson or truth, and sometimes a truth builds slowly inside of you for years, quietly working its way from an abstract thought into a basic tenet of your Faith. I have decided that from time to time on my blog, I will bring attention to one of those slow, quiet truths that has now been stoked to a fire inside of me. I'm gonna warn you - it's not a very popular topic with much of mainline Christianity in our country.
I'm just gonna say it - I cannot be a Christian without being an environmentalist. If you read the Bible and see just how much God delights in His Creation...all of His Creation...you are stared right in the face with the fact that if you're gonna follow Him, you have to help care for His Creation. As you saw at the top of this post, you can't even get through the first chapter of the first book of the Bible without God telling you how much He loves his Creation. And humans weren't even on the scene yet at the point to which these particular verses are referring! The Bible makes as many references to our little blue planet as it does to heaven and love combined. When I read Scripture, I am continually struck by the immensity of God's love for His Creation. He is literally a proud Papa. If I am going to call myself a Christian...someone who is striving to be like Christ...then I had better take my job as a steward of this earth pretty seriously!
Like I said, this is something that has been growing in me for years. It started back when I was in college and for the first time realized that I was an active user...a consumer...of nature. All of my favorite activities hinged upon getting out there and enjoying the natural world. I was an avid skier, snowboarder, hiker, cyclist, camper and yes, a surfer. I have always been the happiest when I am experiencing Creation to the fullest. I noticed that I was beginning to hurt inside when I saw someone littering or watched a news clip of whales being slaughtered. At that point I started to become disillusioned...or maybe more just disappointed...with the Church's stance on environmental issues. The Bible that I read told me to care for nature. It read almost like a love story from God to His Creation...and not just when it came to humans. I started wondering why so many of my Christian friends made fun of people trying to save animals or stop rainforest clearcutting. I wondered if they were reading the same Bible that I was.
Years have passed and, as I grow closer to my Creator, that ache inside of me has become something that is harder and harder to ignore. I'll admit, surfing has played a large role in all of this. But I know that God is doing this on purpose. He really, really, really loves this planet that we call home along with all of its inhabitants. I'll be the first to accept that one human life is worth more than all of the trees in the Amazon or all of the fur seals in the arctic. But that still doesn't give us a free pass to ignore those trees or those seals. I wish more churches would make it a goal to save unborn babies and whales at the same time (babies first, obviously).
My wife Camille put it so perfectly. She mentioned that so often, in Christian circles, the topic of the environment comes up and people say things like, "Why don't we just leave it to the 'dirty hippies'? They're doing a pretty good job sticking up for the environment." Sad but so true. My question is this: How great would it be if 'dirty hippies' sat around talking about environmental problems and the consensus was that the Christians should be in charge of that stuff because they are doing a great job with it? Not a statement anyone is likely to hear soon! I say that to our discredit.
I have really wrestled with this post. This weighs so heavily on my heart, but I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression. I am, first and foremost, about saving people's hearts and souls. I know that this topic will ruffle some feathers. At the end of the day, I have decided that if any of these words ruffle your feathers, your feathers needed ruffling. I welcome comments. I know that I am not the only Christian who cries real tears for our planet and our fellow inhabitants. I know that it is possible to achieve a balance as Christians and as a Church at large when it comes to helping humans and helping the rest of the planet. So for now, I will continue to support causes like The Surfrider Foundation and Sea Shepherd. I will also continue to support missionaries, the poor and my church. Camille and I plan to physically go and be missionaries in the flesh at times...both to people and to our planet, as the Lord leads us.
I hope you are catching my true intent here. I will probably, from time to time, use this blog to call attention to environmental issues. I promise to try my hardest not to get 'preachy'. This is definitely a subject on which I welcome the interaction of the readers. God uses our friends and fellow Christians to help keep us in check. I promise that I won't climb to the top of an evergreen and go on a hunger strike anytime soon...but I if did you would have my permission to throw rocks at me until I came down. You get the picture. For now, please consider, if you haven't, just how deeply God loves all of His creation. His Word says that not one sparrow falls to the ground that He doesn't know about. That makes me an environmentalist.
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