I love the beach. That seems like an odd proclamation coming from a kid who grew up spending every summer in the foothills of North Carolina, as well as just about every other weekend on the Appalachian Trail and in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, yet it’s true. I never told my dad that, it probably would’ve broken his heart...or at least made him frown a little, but it’s true, I love the beach. It seems like there are object lessons and metaphors for life around every turn. The changing of the tides reminds us that every day, like the tides, can bring us something new. The unseen dangers of the beautiful ocean remind us of the unseen dangers of life, and so-on, and so-on. I’m sure that you could find metaphors and object lessons in the mountains, but the truth is after a while you just begin to take for granted as common place and mundane things that you see every day...see there’s a life lesson in the mountains. Maybe that’s where my infatuation with the beach lays; it’s in the excitement of the new and the different. Maybe people at the beach feel the same way about the mountains as I do about their home? Whatever the reason, I still love the beach...just don’t tell my dad.This year’s “great epiphany” came from my seven year old (7 ¾ if you ask her) daughter, Grace. Grace decided this year she wanted to build a deep pool that she could play in. In her typical fashion, this soon became a contest...she wanted to see who could make the deepest pool. We both started working and about half way through our individual endeavors she advised me of her strategy, which was pretty ingenious to be honest with you. “Dad”, she said. “I’ve got it figured out, you don’t have to dig too deep, you can just build up high walls and it makes your pool look deeper!” Eureka! What a novel approach and you know what it really does work. By building up the sides of the pool we were able to make our pool appear deeper with much less effort and the time required in building a “truly” deep pool. Now I’m sure this approach may seem elementary to you, but for us it was revolutionary, but as the day went on and I surveyed our work as the tide came in I noticed a tragic flaw in our plan. You see from the outside looking in the pool looked deep. The high walls had created the illusion of depth. However, as the tide came in and the ocean washed over the wall it was very evident that the “pool” was not as deep as it appeared—it was in fact just a few short inches below the “sea-level”. The pool was easily filled with the sand of the walls and our grand tidal pool was now nothing more than a small dip in the sandy beach.
As I watched our work being destroyed my mind wondered on “spiritual” things. I couldn’t help but to compare Grace’s strategy with the strategy of so many Christians and churches today. We have forgone a true deeper knowledge and relationship with God and created an illusion of depth by building up “walls” of religious works and tradition. Too often we measure our relationship with God by the yard-stick of our works, the things that we do. “Look how close my relationship with God is—see all of the things that I do.” We serve on every committee imaginable and make sure there’s not an event on the church calendar that we miss—sometimes to the detriment of ourselves and our family. We measure ourselves by our “tradition” and the things that we “do”. We must have a certain type of service, in a certain type of way. We build up on the same things year after year, never questioning their value or their purpose. We never stop to see how what we are doing fits into God’s purposes; we just keep on stacking them one on top of the other, keeping the illusion alive that we are getting deeper and deeper in our relationship with God...when the opposite is the true.
We’re not alone in this thinking. The Israelites spent a lot of time building up walls of tradition and works trying to bring depth to their relationship. In the book of Isaiah we see God’s answer to works and tradition without true depth—without a true relationship with God.
“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings...bring your worthless offerings no longer...I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, they have become a burden to Me (Isaiah 1:11-14).”
God wasn’t condemning the sacrificial system which He Himself had established; He was condemning the religious pretense that had come to be so prevalent in all that the Israelites did. The depth of their sacrifices was lacking—they did the acts out of religious duty and not from a contrite heart. Religion is man’s attempt to reach up to God, to try and impress Him with what we can do, so maybe He will pay attention to us. The Gospel teaches us that God came down to man, because there was no other way to establish a relationship with us.
It’s not that all traditions and works are evil and without weight. James reminds us that our faith is evidenced by our works (James 2:17), but these works are not done to obtain faith or grace, but because of our faith and God’s grace. As we leave the pretense of religion and embrace the truth of the gospel we begin to add depth to our lives and our relationship with our Creator. It’s through the depth of our relationship with Him and the working out of His grace in our lives that we are able to complete good works as evidence to our faith. The depths that we reach in our relationship of God will not be easily washed away by the waves of tragedy and circumstances in our lives. The waves and trials of life will simply reveal to us, and others, the true depth of our love for God and our understanding of His grace.
