In an attempt to justify the sheer volume of sugary snacks that I consume I have taken up running again. I set off at 7.30am after morning prayer, grab my trainers and head straight for the beach. This is slowly becoming one of the most important rituals I have in my week. It has become the space where after a time of worship and liturgy in morning prayer, I can really be honest with God.
As soon as I reach the sea and my eyes lock on the horizon, I feel an overwhelming sense of peace. God’s presence here is tangible, I can almost taste Him as the salty air hits the back of my throat. The adrenaline rushes and I tremble as I look out across vastness of the bay in front of me, my eyes transfixed by its sheer size. It is something so much bigger than the giants of worry and stress that have been terrorising my life. The glittering ocean envelopes their stomping rampage into its silence and lifts the fog from my eyes. This releases the tension in my chest and I take a deep breath filling my lungs with the salty sea air as my heart rate slows. As the waves slowly approach my shoes, I am forced back on to my tiptoes, I try to get my balance between the stones. As the waves ebb and flow, inching ever closer to me, I become cripplingly aware of how little control I have over the immense glistening creature in front of my eyes. Every wave rolling in has the power to come crashing down over me. Stories of shipwrecks, tsunamis and tidal waves come into my mind and suddenly I feel very small and vulnerable.
This realisation is magnified when I remember that my eyes are just looking at comparatively small bay of Killiney, nestled in the corner of Ireland, at the edge of the Irish sea. This is a tiny puddle compared to the rest of the earth, 70% of which is covered with water. Our whole planet is covered in this powerful, alluring, blanket of silver. The size of this infinity is too much for my brain to comprehend. There isn’t enough space in my imagination to fit all of this liquid. I will never be able to comprehend something so magnificent. This both breaks my heart and fascinates me.
I take another deep salty breath and it begins to dawn on me. Our vast immense crazy world of water was created by someone that has to be even bigger and even more powerful than the seas themselves. If the seas came from there then so must have the fields and the skies and the stars; the sheer power of this being explodes in my mind. This being of such impossible, and infinite size, is God. My God.
My God. My God who loves me. My God who would move mountains for me. Move mountains for me – this becomes so much more than words. The sheer power and might of what that would involve is real to me. This means that this amazing all powerful God is fighting on my side. Those evil giants that speak the devils lies do not stand a chance against my God.
I turn away from the beach to continue my run, with confident faith in my all powerful, all loving, creator God.
”When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” Isaiah 43:2 NIV
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