Wetsuits Gone Wrong and Jesus

I was at the beach early one morning when a dad arrived with his two kids, a little boy who looked about six and his sister, maybe nine.

Dad was there to surf. The kids were apparently there to...watch Dad surf. Which, as you can imagine, was thrilling for approximately seven minutes. They stood on the beach in their little black wetsuits, watching Dad catch waves. And then they watched some more. And some more.

Eventually, the little boy decided he had reached his lifetime quota of watching Dad surf and wandered into the water to entertain himself. And that is when he made a discovery. A very important discovery.

Apparently, if you unzip the legs of your wetsuit and stand in the surf just right, an incoming wave will shoot water UP INSIDE YOUR WETSUIT.

His skinny little wetsuit legs suddenly ballooned. He looked down. And absolutely lost it. I mean, LOST IT. He was laughing so hard. Then the water poured back out around his ankles. Which was apparently even funnier.

So naturally, he did it again. Wave comes in. Wetsuit fills up. Legs balloon. Water pours out. Hysterical laughter. Again. And again. And again.

At this point, I am no longer casually observing. I am invested and dying of laughter. I am trying to act like a normal grown woman enjoying a peaceful morning at the beach, but this kid and his inflatable wetsuit legs are killing me.

Eventually, his older sister realized that something significantly more interesting than watching Dad surf was happening down the beach. She came over. He demonstrated his discovery. And pretty soon, there were two children intentionally flooding their wetsuits.

I have no idea whether this is recommended wetsuit care. I'm guessing...no. I don't know if those wetsuits survived the morning.

But I can tell you this: The boredom didn't.

What had started as a morning of standing around waiting for something interesting to happen became this ridiculously joyful game. 

And I've thought about those two kids ever since. Because somewhere along the way to adulthood, I think a lot of us get really bad at this. We get very good at waiting for joy. We think joy will come when the circumstances change.

When the vacation starts. When the problem gets solved. When the person calls. When the house gets finished. When the kids cooperate. When the job gets better. When the prayer gets answered.When life finally becomes a little more interesting, predictable, comfortable, or exciting.

Then I'll enjoy it.

But those kids didn't wait for the morning to become more fun. They found joy right in the middle of the morning they had been given.

And that feels surprisingly close to something Jesus said.

This Week’s Faith Habit

Find JOY

Once a day this week, stop and ask: Jesus, where is there joy to receive right here?

Then pay attention.

It might be something big. But I'm guessing most days it won't be. Maybe it's the first sip of coffee. A song you love. A text from a friend. Sunshine through the kitchen window. Your kid saying something completely ridiculous. A really good strawberry. The dog losing its mind because you came home. Five quiet minutes. Someone laughing. The smell of dinner cooking. The ocean hitting the shore.

Or two bored kids discovering that wetsuits can apparently double as personal water balloons.

Receive it. Laugh. Thank God for it. And don't rush past it. Because joy doesn't always arrive when life becomes extraordinary.

Sometimes joy is discovering the extraordinary hiding inside an ordinary moment.

And sometimes you just have to unzip your wetsuit.

(Although, for legal purposes, Faith Habits cannot be held responsible for any wetsuits harmed in the practice of this devotional.) 💦😂