Surf Sessions - Episode I

Dear CS Family on Mission,

We are all facing unprecedented times of uncertainty as the COVID-19 tragedy unfolds in our daily lives. It's natural for our thoughts to gravitate towards ‘what if’. What if I get the virus, or someone I love gets it. What if I lose my job. What if my business doesn't survive. The other challenge we face is the ‘if only.’ If only I had self-isolated, if only more people had listened to the government. If only I…

 ‘What if I’ causes us to focus on an unknown and uncertain future.

‘If only I’ fills us with regret about the past we can't change.

The problem with both of these statements is they find their gravity in ‘I’. Both accounts have ‘I’ as the main subject. Both the ‘what if's’ of the future and the ‘if only’ of the past use self as their foundation. 

A while back, a close friend of mine found out he had cancer. It was devastating news. There was a battle of epic proportions ahead and all the fear and uncertainty of a tumultuous future. When I spoke to him, he said something so profound. Roy, I'm swapping out ‘what if’ for ‘even if’. In that one sentence, he shifted the gravitational centre from himself to Jesus and changed his orbit in every way.

In the current tsunami of ‘what if's’ let us centre our gravity around our unshakable, immutable all-powerful loving and merciful God.

Let us swap the instability of

What if I…

for the certainty of 

Even if…He. 

Like Shadrach, Meshak, and Abednigo let’s fire up our faith that even if the unthinkable happens, we will still serve him. Let us pray like Habakkuk that even if there are troubles ahead, we can be joyful in the God of our salvation.

Even if we are in lockdown, even if there is turmoil at the door, even if we lose heart or stumble, He who called us is faithful and will see us through.

Love God, listen to your governments, find ways to love people, live out your life and in every way allow His kingdom of peace, love, grace, and mercy to be felt in your communities.

And remember EVEN IF...we can be assured of the fact:

 “That neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 8:38-39

Roy Harley is the Christian Surfers International Director.