Tidal Love

Today we explore the eastern seaboard, the power of the LAT, and the soul work below the water line.

This is the last in a ten-part series on learning to love the Lord (and our neighbor) with all our soul.  The soul is that part of you that is eternal.  After death, after this life, all you will be left with is your soul to carry on into eternity.  If you don’t learn to love with all your soul, you won’t have any love left when life is over.

"Remember, you are loved, so go, love better!"

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Transcript

Four times a day across the eastern seaboard of the United States, we experience what are called semi-diurnal tides.  Two high tides and two low tides a day.  The Atlantic Ocean's waters rise and fall according to the pattern of the moon.  Ocean tides are caused primarily by the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and by the Sun, as well as the little bit by the rotation of the Earth.  As the moon circles the globe it has a gravitational pull upon the oceans, almost like a giant magnetic exerting an attractive force upon the earth’s waters.  The waters of the earth bulge upward as the moon passes over them creating what we call high tide.  High tide covers the shore, bringing driftwood, debris, and other odd flotsam and jetsam to the outer edges of the beach where these sticks, pebbles, and other sundry bits that are pushed ashore gather at what we call the high tide line leaving a distinct line of seaweed and detritus.  If you are ever building a sandcastle you are hoping will last or with your beach umbrella and blanket in hand you are seeking to stake claim to a safe beach spot – you do best to pay attention to the high water mark created by high tide.  But today, I’m not interested in high tide.  Today, we are going to talk about the LAT and how it impacts the soul.

            I’m Scott Beyer and this is the Love Better podcast where we explore the truths and lies about love and more importantly how to turn love into a skill – something we can get better at and hone along the way.

This is the last in a ten-part series on learning to love the Lord (and our neighbor) with all our soul.  The soul is that part of you that is eternal.  After death, after this life, all you will be left with is your soul to carry on into eternity.  If you don’t learn to love with all your soul, you won’t have any love left when life is over.

            LAT stands for lowest astronomical tide and it is a big deal in the marine world.  Every year, LAT also known as the king low tide, is marked on the calendars of every avid beachcomber and hobby marine biologist in America.  Depending on the year and the alignment of the sun and the moon, king low can expose hundreds of extra feet of beach areas teeming with life that normally exist just below the surface.  For a brief window of time, sea stars, coral, anemones, mollusks, and even crustaceans and small fish can be found exposed above the water line.  In short, king low tide brings to view things that normally would never be seen, but were always there.

            So while children gleefully point and stare at starfish as big as their head and giggle at the opportunity to touch squishy sea sponges, low tide has often brought dismay to more keen eyes.  In New Jersey, king low highlights how much the invasive Asian shore crab has reeked havoc on native marine life.  Or along the pacific coast, California’s coastline erosion problem can be seen with the naked eye.  In places with rocky shores like Cornwall in the UK, extreme low tides expose dangerous outcroppings which can lead to injury as adventurous but foolish individuals brave hazards and slippery exposed terrain.

            Low tide brings out the best, but it also exposes the worst.  Welcome to life.

            Your soul is not a static thing.  It is a living thing impacted by the choices we make and the world around us.  Ezekiel 18 tells us “the soul that sins will die” – reminding us that sinful choices impact our souls is horrible, poisonous ways.  Our soul can also be impacted by the environment – Samson’s soul was vexed by Delilah as she pressed him day after day to reveal the secret to his strength.  Eventually, he did.

            On the other hand, Hannah poured out her soul – revealing the gift of prayer.  She dumped out all her burdens, exposing them to God and left His presence lighter for it.

            David’s initial army when he fled from Saul was made up of four hundred men who were distressed by life, in debt, and bitter in soul.  Bitter souls clung to David because they saw a man that could help them and understand them at the same time.  Their external circumstances impacted both their soul and attracted them to someone who could potentially ease their burden.

            Job speaks about his soul on a constant basis – his soul is grieved, distressed, and bitter… and David’s psalms are full of language describing the living nature of the soul.  In Psalm 6, his soul is greatly troubled and every night his bed swims with tears.  Psalm 19 discusses the revival of the soul and Psalm 23 famously says that the Lord is my shepherd… he restores my soul.  He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.  Good things can bring life and joy to the soul and hard things can oppress it.

            God even warns the nation of Israel in Deuteronomoy 28 that if they turn from him, He would send them into foreign lands for their disobedience so that their souls would languish, their lives would hang in doubt, and night and day they would have no assurance of life.

            All of this points to something you probably already know because you are a soul.  Your choices, others choices, and life’s circumstances can all impact your soul… and when the low tides come, you see things in yourself you never would see otherwise.

            As we finish off this series on the soul, I want you to remember that your soul is who you are and who you are becoming is your most important job as a Christian.  It is the transformation of the soul that Paul talks about in his second letter to the Corinthians when he says,

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor 3:18)

Our souls are made in the image of God – it is one of the first principles of the Bible – found all the way back in Genesis chapter one… but the problem is that our souls need to be transformed to match that image.  And oftentimes, what we find is that beneath the water line, there is work to be done.

Jesus referred to this soul work when He rebuked the religious leaders for being whitewashed tombs that were outwardly clean, but inside were full of dead men’s bones.  He encouraged His disciples to clean the inside of the cup instead of just the outside… and in His Sermon on the Mount He emphasized hidden behavior as being a great indicator of spiritual health than public behavior.

Halfway through the sermon on the Mount, in Matthew Chapter 6, Jesus addresses three behaviors that are low tide actions –prayer, giving, and fasting.

A man that prays in public with long phrases and eloquent words is not necessarily a spiritual man – he might just be a good actor… but the woman that prays in her inner room where no one can see but God – that soul is being transformed because she’s doing the work of pouring out the soul before her Father.  In fact, Jesus warns that the public prayer can easily turn into an act of showmanship and a focus on specific vocabulary over heartfelt candor.  As He says, “when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. (Mat 6:7)”

The soul work is done behind closed doors with honest vulnerability and intentional reverence.  Do not be afraid to be a simple soul of simple words.

In a similar fashion, giving is best done quietly.  Though there are times that giving publicly can’t be avoided, the meaningful soul work is done when your hand is held open to help while your other hand remains closed not expecting to receive credit in return.  In the days of the Roman empire, the Caesars and other political figures would regularly give food and gifts to the populace while parading down the streets and announcing themselves as benevolent, gracious, and merciful.  The religious leaders of Jesus’ day, the Sadducees and Pharisees, had begun similar practices.  That sort of generosity is transactional – the person gets help, you get credit and esteem.

Instead, do the soul work under the water where it is less likely to be exposed.  Give anonymously, help quietly, and look for needs.  From dropping off firewood to heat the home of the couple on a fixed income to leaving a generous tip for the hospitality staff member that is working hard to provide for their family or calling in to pay extra on the electric bill for a young family struggling to keep the lights on.  Psalm 23 tells us that God is a gracious God who seeks to bless us with cups that overflow.  If our desire is to be like Him on the inside, not just looking the part on the outside, we need to learn to be abundantly generous – not just once and a while, but often.  We share because He shares and when we do it below the tide line – the real soul transformation happens.

And the last behavior Jesus mentions is fasting.  Fasting for religious purposes is always intended to be personal.  You feel the hunger pangs and remember to pray.  You feel weaker and remember to rely on His strength.  You make the sacrifice and God sees it, no one else.  Private, solemn, and contemplative – it is a voluntary submission to worship God in a way that impacts both your body and your soul… but when a personal sacrifice becomes a public spectacle the focus shifts from soul work to soul rot.

But why do all this work beneath the water if no one is going to see it anyways?  Where is the value for all this soul work when no one will know or give you credit?

First – because someone does see – God sees.  Your reward is from God and not from man.  In your private prayer, your anonymous giving, and your quiet fasting there is an invisible observer and His approval is more important than ten thousand Instagram hearts and a million Facebook shares.

Second – you have to live with yourself.  Other people will come and go, but the soul below the waves is you and you aren’t going to escape him.  Who you are in your depths is the real you and if he or she is a fraud, even if you con the rest of us, you can’t con yourself.

And third – it doesn’t happen every day, but every soul gets revealed from time to time.  Life is like the ocean – it has high tides and low tides, too.  The low tides expose the best and the worst of us.  It certainly did with the Pharisees and Sadduccees – when Jesus arrived it brought the worst out of them.  Their slick, well-groomed, perfectly staged lives unraveled when confronted with the true King.  Life brings tragedies that will test your true prayer life, your real generosity and contentment, and the inner you will show what soul work you’ve done.  When life unmasks us and pulls back the curtain – what work you’ve done will be seen.  Even pretenders can pretend forever.

The high tides also have a way of revealing what soul work we’ve been doing.  Prosperity, fame, notoriety, and achievement, along with comfort, luxury, and abundance have a way of bring the best of us to the surface or littering the shores edge with debris and seaweed.  Either way, the tides of life will bring out the ocean’s depths.  Who you are can’t be hidden from God, it can’t be hidden from yourself, and it can’t be hidden indefinitely.

So, I exhort you as your friend – do the soul work, not just the surface staging.  Work on your character, your connection to the Lord, and your compassion for your neighbor.  The most important thing in life is the soul and it is living.  Jesus gives us soul life.  Use the blessing and do the work.

Learn to love better.  Do the soul work.  The work beneath the waters.

Thank you for listening.  I’m thankful for you.  Starting next week, I’m going to be on vacation celebrating 25 years of marriage to the love of my life.  I don’t talk about her on this podcast because anything I say would fail to do service to the gift and blessing she is.  For 25 years I have found it to be true what Proverbs 18:22 says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.”

I’ll be back in a couple of weeks as we begin a new ten-part series on the mind.  That fantastic, wonderful, terrifying thing God gave us between our ears.  When we get back we will explore the power of the mind and learn how to love the Lord and our neighbor with all our mind.

As always, thank you for listening and hopefully we've done something to help make your life a little bit better.  If you have a chance to rate, review or share the podcast it would be a blessing.  By sharing with others or leaving a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify, you help us reach more people.

And if you are ever in the Louisville, KY area, I’d like to invite you to worship with us at the Eastland congregation next Sunday.  If you want more information about Eastland, visit us at eastlandchristians.org.  Or if you are looking for more tools to enrich your Bible study, visit my personal Bible site, Biblegrad.com, where you can sign up for daily Bible devotionals called Biblebites and receive them in your email each morning, take online Bible classes, or find videos that will help you study through the Bible throughout the year.

And until next time, “Remember, you are loved, so go… love better.”