One of the places I surf the most is the Huntington Beach Cliffs (Dog Beach). When I get there, along with every other surfer, I park my car and walk up the couple of stairs and lean on the rail and look down at the waves. I am looking for motivation. Motivation to pay for parking, change into my wetsuit, pull out my board, put wax on my board, put on sunscreen, walk/climb down the cliff, strap on my leash, paddle out, and wait in the cold water for the hope of a wave. Believe it or not, it doesn’t take much to motivate me to do all of this because, after all, I know the joy of catching a good wave. All I really need is a friend to do it with. Sometimes I’ll get some fun waves and other times I don’t, but as me and my friends leave one of us will always say, “Well, at least it was good to get wet.”
For me, this is a good illustration of what sharing our faith and the body of Christ is like. Sharing our faith is hard and not something that just happens. If I feel alone in doing this and I don’t see other believers doing it, I won’t. I need to be motivated. It doesn’t take much, as I know the joy of seeing someone give their faith to Jesus for the first time. If I am with people who are doing it and I hear about their successes and failures, I will share. We are here to encourage and inspire each other to share our faith. We are not doing this alone. We are doing this together.
If you are part of a community or have people you are praying with, share your experiences, even your lack of motivation, and pray to inspire and be inspired. If you are not part of a group, maybe it is time to find one. It is not about guilting people to share; it is about us motivating each other to do something we love. And even if we don’t see our friends come to faith, it is always good to at least get wet.
