To Stand

I just heard from my cousin who is in Hawaii on vacation right now.  I got to go there last year with her and it was amazing!!  We went boogie boarding, which was great.  But I got pretty beat up.  Just didn't quite get the timing right.  Timing, evidently, is important in boogie boarding.  

When I got back to Liberia, I went to the beach with some friends.  The waves were bigger than I remembered them being last year when I was here.  I didn't have a boogie board, but thought body surfing sounded like a good idea.  Once again, I got pummeled.  

After one particularly big wave knocked my feet right out from under me and sucked me under in a crazy swirling pull, I found myself flailing rather wildly... When my head finally came up from the depths I took in a big gasping breath.  OK, and I was still flailing.  When suddenly my hand hit something.  It was sand.  Oh.  It was sand.  I paddled to get my feet underneath me and I stood up. I was in about three feet of water.  

So I can't get the picture out of my mind.  Because in the end, I felt quite ridiculous. Here I was flailing, and gasping, and all I had to do... was stand up.  And what I feel like is more amazing is that I could relate this to my life.  I got hit by a wave.  Or two.  And got my feet knocked out from under me.  And I have been flailing and gasping... for about six years.  

And recently when I felt the swell of another wave, I perceived a still small voice.  

It whispered, "Child, stand up."

And I did.  

And found beneath my feet, not sand.  But a Rock.  

And the waves suddenly did not hold the same power that they had just moments before.

It felt good to stand.