For My Sisters Series #1 {Venturing Out Into The Depths}

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Bethany, Rachael & Esther,

 

If so many miles did not separate us from each other, I would share these thoughts with you over a hot cup of lemon tea. Perhaps someday we can all enjoy a tea party with each other once again, but in the mean time I have decided to jot down some of my thoughts for you to read. I hope you can glean from them and be both challenged and encouraged by them. So my precious, little Sisters, here are some thoughts I want to share with you before you venture out into the world---before you leave the warmth and safety of home---and before you set out on your own journey to be a light in the darkness (not saying that you are not already shining lights for Jesus right now, because you certainly are). I have already begun my journey of venturing out into the depths, and I still have a long ways ahead of me, but these are some things that I have learned that I wish to pass on to the three of you. So much sooner then we think and our journey on this earth will be over and we will have made it HOME, but until then let us be completely spent and worn out for God as we journey heavenward.

 I am now half-way through my second patrol on the USCGC Midgett. We are enjoying the blue waters of the south, Pacific Ocean along the coast of South and Central America. Soon we will be mooring up in Golfito, Costa Rica for a port call. Last week we enjoyed a few days in Panama. I went out with some friends to the “Multi-central”, which ended up being very much like one of our malls back in the States. We enjoyed dinner and some wifi at a Hard Rock Café. I was talking to a couple of my fellow Coasties, both of whom are also Christians, and one of them told me something that made me smile.

 

“Sara-Grace, ya know people say that when they put you here on the Midgett, it was like putting a flower in a toilet bowl.”

 

At this the other Coastie nodded and laughed , “And she doesn’t wilt!”

 

I smiled and replied, “It’s not because of me; it is because of Christ.”

 

Before Jesus went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin, He prayed for His Followers: “Holy Father…My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one” (John 17:15). We live in this world, but we are not of it; our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). Right now you are still at home---safe and shielded from the darkness of this world---but someday the Lord may lead you down a path far away from home. He may burden your heart to become a teacher, and so you may leave home to go off to college so that you can help children learn about Jesus; you may want to share your faith by caring for wounded Soldiers, so you may join the Army and become a combat medic; or maybe God might call you to tell the little boys and girls who live in a country far away about Jesus’ great love, and you may leave all your friends and animals and toys behind to follow Him. Whatever it may be, the day will come and you will be like a beautiful flower being plucked from the flower bed, and tossed into a toilet bowl. You may wonder, “How am I going to survive in such an ugly, dirty place without wilting and becoming just as ugly and dirty?” You will even have to face the questions that other people will ask you, “Doesn’t God want you to stay in the garden where it is safe and you won’t risk wilting in the first place?” So knowing that you will be bombarded with these questions, fears, and uncertainties one day soon, and while you are still growing and blossoming into the young women God wants you to be, here are some of my reflections on treasuring purity, all the while living in a world that despises it.

 

I can guarantee you that as you get older you will meet lots of Christian girls, but whether they love Christ or not is an entirely different question. Some girls will have little concern about purity, others will spend all their energy pursuing it, some will resent it, and others will wish they possessed it. My prayer for you girls is not that you pursue purity with relentless abandon nor that you push it into some dark corner of your life so as to forget it’s existence, but that you would treasure purity because being pure makes much of Jesus. I believe that it is quite meaningless to be pure for the sake of being pure just as it is also meaningless just to go to church because that is what people do on Sundays. Our goal in life is not purity, but to glorify God in everything we do and we accomplish this by being pure. So just like when we all used to pile into the suburban to go on vacation, we were set on a goal---whether it was Mommom and Poppy’s house,  Gulf Shores, or the Hall’s---we accomplished our goal by driving down the road. The road we were on was not our goal, but it was the means by which we got to our goal. In the same way, purity is not our mission in life, making much of Christ is and one way we do this by being pure.

 

I do not want you to get the wrong idea, and think that I do not consider purity to be important because I think it is very important and of great value. However, I fear that sometimes we so fill our minds up with thoughts on “being pure” that we have no room left for Christ and so defeat our purpose. It is true that when our minds are empty that sin and impurity can come in and take over our thoughts and keep us from honoring Christ, but the other extreme is just as bad. If Christ is not the center of every thought then our hearts will be compromised with impurity. So let us not be girls who do or do not pursue purity, but let us be girls who pursue Christ. Let our minds be so filled with His love that no impure thought would have room to grow in our hearts.

 

God’s plan for our lives hardly ever turns out to be ideal, but why would they turn out that way in the first place since our thoughts are not His thoughts nor are our ways His ways? When I decided to join the Coast Guard, I knew that I would face challenges and difficulties in my life that I had never encountered before. However I knew that God was the one leading me forth down this path. I remember back when I was praying and deciding whether or not I should join the Coast Guard, a verse that encouraged me to press hard after Christ no matter what, was Psalm 23:4: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” 

 

The joy of my heart is Jesus Christ, and the blazing passion of my soul is to share Him with those around me so that they can also know His love which is better than life (Psalm 63:3). Daily I am surrounded by men and women who are desperately pursing their pleasure in earthly things apart from Jesus. They long to be loved and treasured so they do all they can to attain what they want, but they look for it in all the wrong places. They may gratify their flesh in the process, but their souls will never be satisfied until they come to Christ and find their all in Him. They may appear happy and content, but their souls are broken and they do not know true joy. Never let your heart be deceived into thinking that you are missing out in life because you are living for Jesus and are seeking to please Him by the way you live and act. Jesus is the only One who can fill the void in our hearts. He is the greatest joy we can ever know, the dearest friend we can ever have, the most costly treasure we can ever possess, the only Savior we can trust and depend upon with our lives.

 

So being anchored and secure in our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, run the race God has for you with endurance, and shine His beauty and glory to the world. Do not put your hand to the plow and look back; you cannot press heavenward while gazing at the things of this world. Know that God has a plan for your life, and also know that His plans are not easy and quick. He is faithful to finish the work that He started in us to make us like Jesus, and He is not in a rush but will patiently bring it about in His perfect timing. He will take us through peaceful meadows as well as through dark valleys. It is true that it would be easier and more comfortable to stay in the flower bed where it is safe and you are nurtured and admired by all who pass by, but you would not be able to shine God’s glory into the darkness or spread the message of salvation to the lost. We must be plucked---we must die to self and all its hope and desires and dreams---in order to go into this dark world to shine God’s glory; and it hurts and it is not easy, but through it all Christ is always at our side. So do not stay where things are comfortable, easy, and safe: go into the battle. God will fight for you, but know this that before you can see God fight for you, you must go into the battle. Press on in His strength and you will see His glory. Remember that you must feel the heat of the battle before you will see the hand of God at work.

 

Take the adventure that God has for you, and do not allow fear to control you and keep you from making known the glory of God. Following hard after Christ is not easy, but we must remember that when all is said and done He is the only One who matters. So do not be afraid of being a flower in a toilet bowl---do not fear the world and do not fear any evil---because God is with You and He is the One who will keep you from wilting. Surrender your life to Him that He may do and work in you as He pleases and He will use you to be a light of His glory to the world around you. He will take you to the homeless of downtown Seattle; to the struggling Guardians out patrolling the sea, to the unreached people groups of Cameroon, Africa; to the elementary schools in Edgewood, New Mexico; to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan; to the weary Soldiers on and home from the front lines; and who knows where else, all in order to shine His glory to those who do not know Him and to share His love with those who hate Him. So, my dear, little Sisters, take the adventure God has for you!

 

Sara-Grace Waite

Coast Guard Cutter Midgett

South Pacific Ocean

August 2010