Written By: Christian Brugger | Long Beach Chapter, CSUS
Photo By: Haley Bolton

I pulled up to the beach — glassy lines were rolling in, peeling over a perfect sandbar. After a couple of good waves, the sets died. Fifteen minutes passed. No more sets.

Did the swell die? Should I check another spot? Why do I even trust the Surfline forecast?

Then someone in the lineup says it: “Slack tide.”

As surfers, we know the rhythm. Waves come in sets. Swells move in cycles. But beneath it all, the ocean follows a deeper cosmic pattern: the incoming flood tide (chaos and creation), followed by the slack tide (redemption and rest), and then the outgoing ebb tide (resurrection and renewal) when the land emerges from the flood. In the slack tide, everything slows. There’s quiet. Waiting. God provides renewal even for the mighty ocean.

In Scripture, this cycle appears again and again, starting from creation.

• God rested on the seventh day.
• After 40 days of rain, Noah’s ark came to rest on a mountain for another 40 days.
• Moses waited 40 days on the mountain for the Law.
• Israel wandered 40 years in the wilderness.
• Jonah preached that Nineveh had 40 days to repent.
• Jesus remained 40 days between the resurrection and the ascension.

Are you in a slack tide season?

Don’t panic. Be still. Listen. The tide will turn.

Romans 1:20
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — His eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”