When we first did our DTS in 2019, a staff member named Richard took Jeff surfing several mornings a week. They’d get up when it was still very dark, drive to Pine Trees to catch some waves, skip breakfast and get back while others were still wiping sleep from their eyes. Jeff has been returning the favor to our current students. 

Last Friday, our friend David stayed out while the rest of the gang went to shower and rinse off their boards. What no one realized was that his leash was stuck on a large lava rock with a mass of coral stuck to the side of it. He kept diving down to try and get the leash untangled from the rock, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get it loose. The ocean water was too salty and murky for him to see how to untangle it. Fortunately, he was in water that was not over his head, so he could breathe, but it was not a great situation. Ultimately, he decided to just put the entire rock on his board and paddle to shore.

He walked out of the water toward us, and we saw the big rock sitting on top of his board. We assumed there was something special about the rock, but then he told us his story. Jeff looked at it and quickly pulled the leash down and away from the coral. It was so easy to detach once out of the water! The rock was actually small and harmless, and in the end we could laugh about it.

I woke up this morning very early, and God brought this story to mind. He spoke to me that we can’t fix our problems on our own, and we often don’t recognize that we are stuck and need help! The best thing we can do is to take our problem before God and others, get their perspective and have them help us see from a different perspective. God has put trustworthy people in our lives  who will immediately be able to detect what we are unable to see and help us. Our eyes are figuratively clouded by sea salt, air bubbles, sand and silt.

Friends, I am trying to practice bringing my own struggles into the light. I think God is inviting all of us to bring things into the open and stop struggling alone. We need each other! We all need help!

But all things become visible when they are exposed by light, for everything that becomes visible is light. Ephesians 5:13

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1-2

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. Hebrews 3:13

Lesson #6: Bring those heavy rocks and entanglements into the light and get help. We aren’t meant to solve our problems or overcome sin by ourselves.