Different Perspective

Summertime on the gulf can be flatter than flat, we jokingly call it the Lake of Mexico but there is some truth to that. When we do get waves it’s usually a small longboard wave at best, unless there is a hurricane that enters the Gulf. 

I was out for a first surf in like a month on one of these small knee high days. One thing that is for sure this time of year is that there will be tourists out enjoying the beach. As I was surfing, I saw two men walk out to enjoy a refreshing dip in the emerald green waters. But as I glanced over I noticed something, SUNGLASSES. Thats right this man walked out with his Sunnies on, and I think you know what happened next. A wave came, the whitewater knocked him under and up he stood… without his sunnies. As he and the other man attempted to look for the glasses, I was pretty certain they wouldn’t find them. They were about rib deep in the water and with the sun high in the midday sky the glare on the surface of the water from their vantage point made it look like a mirror, there was no way they were seeing to the bottom even as crystal clear as the water was.

After I caught my next wave, I paddled over to where I had seen the man get knocked over. And after just a couple seconds looking for them from above, perched up on my log, I was able to find them and holler to the man. As I returned his glasses, he was super grateful  I responded telling him it was no problem and not to worry about but then he said “I don’t know how you found em, we’d been looking for close to 10 minutes”. Some times you just need a different perspective I responded and went back out into the lineup. 

It got me thinking about how often we may lose something, maybe a piece of our lives or actually be completely lost ourself and spend so much time looking when all we really need is someone to come along and put things into a different light. To view things from a different perspective and to be able to see things that we had not been able to see.

Scripture often tells us of the importance of Christian community, of other believers spurring each other on, growing together, learning together and guiding one another through our respective faith walks. It is truly important to have this community but often times I feel that we can miss a key component. We find community with other believers who are at similar stages in their walk as us, neglecting those that may have walked this part of the journey already and can provide that different perspective. Or we can neglect those who may be just starting out on their faith journey, not being there to provide the different perspective that we may have gained. We can walk alongside those people, sharing experiences and doing life together, gleaning nuggets of insight, learning, teaching, and loving one another as we all grow closer to Christ.  I’ve heard it said like this – every Paul needs a Timothy and every Timothy needs a Paul. 

Image by: Riley Dodd