“Lately, my favorite beach has become a battlefield lesson. It’s been a dream for the surfers and a “standing up to a nightmare” enlightenment for me. So many times, in life we are called to stand up to fierce waves. The surfer delights in this challenge. However, my most desired swim is in tranquil seas. However, such is not most of present-day life.
Recently, while ambling the sandy beach, I’ve been amazed that forceful waves are breaking at the shoreline, as well as out where the surfers await their ride and conquer. What a simile this is to our current world. No one need swim into rough waters to encounter overpowering turbulence, for it has arrived at our doorsteps. My personal perspective is this has become anticipated, and even prepared for. We have come to expect the waves. None the less, what today’s shoreline walk messaged me is that withstanding the backlash is where my strength needs to grow.
As I trek down the sand, it is now second nature for me to prepare and brace for the onslaught waves. They are clearly visible in front of me. Recognizing one headed in my path, I stop and plant my bearings firmly in the beach foundation under me. Same is true for my moral and spiritual bedrock. When I see forces headed at me with intent to topple me, I anchor myself in God and His strength, not mine.
What I discovered on my latest seashore excursion is I’m off guard and unskilled in a backlash assault. Getting bushwacked, this is the challenge I now need to both anticipate and train for. A backlash comes from behind. It also builds force from its direction, which most often is steam rolling downhill. My life is accustomed to uphill battles, where I see the challenge looming in my path. Till now, I never even gave thought, let alone precaution, to withstanding what lurks in my blind spot and strikes from the rear. I’m ready, so to speak, for life’s frontal attacks. Let opposition, unanticipated and hidden from detection, strike and the daredevil task becomes my just not being totally bowled over. Forget defeating the opposing force. For me, remaining even wobbly upright is commendable.
Terrifying undercurrent, simply spoken, is Satan loves the ambush attack. He delights when I, nonchalantly, assume the day ahead of me must only beware of a frontal near miss and not fraught with the danger of his rear hiss.
Never too old to grow deeper in my walk with God, my past strolls on the shore confirmed it takes less fortitude to withstand a wave than it does a backlash. Truth is, also, that we can strategize and prepare for a wave coming at us. We are blindsided and caught off balance by a backlash. There is no time for planning a defense here. So, from where does the immediate power to withstand and surmount a backlash come? The strongest of sources to achieve this resounds in Micah 7: 7-8 (ESV). “But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.”
Don’t know about you, but I’m committing this verse to memory and intend to use it as my major weapon against backlash attacks!!!
Uplifted in a Broken Down World 