You've Got to Ride the Waves

Basically we dropped the ball in March.  And I have thought about our poor sad abandoned blog ever since.  I have meant to start back up again several times, but something always got in the way.  But then recently something happened that has spurred a resurrection.

On November 2, Jake got into a motorcycle accident.  He sustained third degree burns on his legs and spent nearly three weeks in a hospital in San Francisco.

Poor kid.  I had school and couldn't go out there to see him, but I talked to him every day on the phone.  I had been wanting to talk to Jake more, and I thoroughly enjoyed our talks.  One night, toward the end of his stay, he was feeling pretty low.  He was tired, sore, cranky, and bored.  As we were talking, he just kept saying, "I just gotta ride the waves.  Gotta ride the waves."  And it reminded me of an article I read earlier that morning in the October 2014 Ensign entitled, "Upon the Top of the Waters" by Jon Warner.

In the article, the author was suffering in a great trial.  He asked God to take his trial away, to calm the storm about him.  But then one day he was reading in the book of Ether, and...well, I will just quote from the article directly:

In the middle of my anxiety and despair, I reread the account of the Jaredites crossing the “great deep” (Ether 2:25). I can only imagine their anxious anticipation as they entered their barges. Their journey might be perilous, but they knew they were headed to “a land choice above all other lands” (Ether 2:15).

Of their journey, we read:

“The Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind.

“And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind.

“… When they were encompassed about by many waters they did cry unto the Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters.

“And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind” (Ether 6:5–8).

These verses became personal to me. I felt that I was in my own barge, with winds of anxiety beating upon me and waves of depression swelling over me and burying me in the depths of despair. When I was “encompassed about” and would cry unto the Lord, I would break through the surface but would then be buried once more.

I read verse 8 again: “The wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land … and thus they were driven forth before the wind” (emphasis added). Then it hit me. The very wind that caused the mountainous waves to bury the barges also blessed the Jaredites on their journey. I had been pleading with Heavenly Father to calm the wind and waves, but without them, I might not reach whatever “promised land” He was leading me to.

My favorite painting of waves is "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" by Katsushika Hokusai.  I think it epitomizes this story perfectly.  The waves are both terrible and beautiful at the same time.  Sometimes we need the waves to bring us to where we are supposed to be.  If we ask God to calm the storm, we may not reach our final destination, which, if we are listening, will be "a far green country under a swift sunrise." 

So ride the waves my friends, ride the waves.

-Jess