Periodically along the coast of Maine the fog can suddenly roll in off the ocean and cloud your vision. Such was the case when I pulled in to Fort Williams to park by the lighthouse with a view of the seascape and ocean. I was going there to think, reflect and pray because a different kind of fog had already rolled into my mind. My vision for things of the Kingdom was losing its clarity ….
While winding up the park roadway, I looked for the familiar lighthouse now obscured by fog. I wondered what word or direction the Lord would have for me as I met Him there. I knew that in my own mind I wanted something clear. But as I parked and watched the salty mist scud across my view of the lighthouse, I felt closed in, not only by the gray world outside, but inside as well. There were too many images, thoughts, concerns, details and issues that were banking in on me.
Suddenly the fog seemed to lift and I had a view of the rocks and surf below. There, at high tide, in all its foamy force, was the swelling, then the crashing of the waves. Each mound would rise up, engulfing the jutting rocks and pound down again upon the previous receding wave.
For a moment, my mind flashed back to an encounter with the waves in Florida. While playing in the surf one afternoon, I was unexpectedly swallowed up by a huge wave, rolled end over end without mercy, and tossed face first up against the beach. The experience was frightening to me, not so much because I had almost run out of breath, but because the pounding power of the wave had so totally overtaken me. I had no more control in that wave than the limp seaweed wrapped around my ankle! In a brief few seconds, I had gained tremendous respect for those waves.
Now as I sat in my car staring at the building power of the cold Maine waves, an unspoken voice whispered, “I am more powerful that these ….!” Who else but the great I AM could make such a statement? Is it not written of God: “You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up you still them.”? (Psalm 89:9)
Indeed, God is more powerful, and he can handle all that my mind, in all its clutter, could throw at Him. Nothing is too small, nothing is too great. So, He and I spent some time together. I talked and I tried to listen. The fog never lifted from the lighthouse, but in my mind it did. I had met with a mighty God.
The seas have lifted up, O Lord, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea—the Lord on high is mighty.
~ Psalm 93:3-4 NIV
—RWO/MAST
Comments by Ric Ochsner