Deeper than we know and more than we could imagine.

I recently watched the TED talk above. It goes into detail about the ocean and it's great depth of mystery. (I highly suggest watching it, both to be amazed and as perspective for this post.) With his description of deep sea creatures who look like they're covered in Christmas lights, David Gallo shares a compelling fact:

We have only explored 3% of the ocean.

As Gallo put it:
"We've found the world's deepest valleys, highest mountains, underwater lakes and waterfalls. In a place [the ocean] where we thought there was no life at all, we find more life, we think, and diversity and density than in the tropical rainforests, which tells us that we don't know much about this planet at all.
There's still 97% and either that 97% is empty, or just full of surprises."

Something about that is absolutely incredible to me. Maybe it's because I live in Florida and such incredible diversity is so nearby, but I've never ventured beyond eight feet of water - and if I have, it's been by a boat, wearing a snorkeling mask. Safely.

In my wonder, I found myself convicted of being content with wondering at the surface, rather than risking to encounter the dangers and beauty of down below. And I say "dangers" because when we make that transition from loving Jesus with a superficial, partial devotion to letting ourselves be submerged in His love, needing Him and needing to trust Him - it's dangerous. When we give ourselves to Jesus wholly, He will not let our idols stand. Our lives, in the most beautiful and right way, will be turned inside out.

But exploring the depths is a struggle. It's not only a time commitment, it's a life commitment. IT means we're to have deep questions, deep desires, and situations where we have only Christ to lean on. It's the difference between snorkeling and scuba diving - floating at the surface, at a distance, or gearing up and submerging ourselves in serious devotion to our Father.

Is it worth the struggle?

More and more, I'm finding the reality that it is. It is worth it because the 3% we know fills the challenge with purpose. Christ loves us as His children, deems us worthy to die for, forgive and save. He is with us, full of grace, and promises to give us all we need according to his glorious riches (Philippians 4:19). We don't pretend to know everything about Jesus, but as believers we cling firmly to what we do know, and we know that there's infinitely more to seek out in our Father's heart.

"Either that 97% is empty, or just full of surprises."

So here is where the stakes are set. When we're tempted to believe that we can't go any deeper in our faith, that our hope is void, our labor useless, that Jesus is a mere story empty of truth or relevance. When we have to choose whether we're satisfied with a surface view or if we truly want to find the life below.

Jesus will love you deeply, delight you, forgive you, be with you, revive your heart, transform your mindset. He'll convict you, challenge you, break your heart for injustice, prune you. But you will find life to the fullest, with roots deep in Christ's heart. Painfully dark crevasses of our hearts that we believed could never cultivate life will be revived. Jesus has stored up these glorious plans, but to find life where we thought there could be none at all, we have to venture into the dark places Jesus calls us to. These truths require us to be courageous enough to jump into the 97%, trusting that below is true life - more than we ever thought possible by looking at the surface.

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father...so that...you may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever." Ephesians 3:14, 18-21