Lessons from Sea Turtles

My family and I got to spend all of July in an area of Texas along the Rio Grande Valley.  We served a mission church there and came back profoundly changed.  A month in a coastal town did wonders for my outlook on life, but not for the reasons you’d think.  It wasn’t lack of work.  My husband still preached every Sunday, led Bible study and prayer groups, elders and board meetings.  I still had laundry for five, a house to clean and three kids to keep one step ahead of.  To save money, we didn’t eat out until the family came to visit, so there were still dinners to make.  We still stuck to a reasonable, although not as strict, schedule.  So what was so different there?  How does the beach mindset translate to life in one of the biggest metropolitan in the country?  In the next few blog entries, I’ll be exploring the lessons we learned about work, family, nature and God. 

My first lesson came five days into the month:  setbacks do not mean you are not following God’s plan for your life. 

Although I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico, I never had the chance to watch newly hatched Ridley sea turtles crawl to the ocean.  One morning before dawn the entire family headed out to the beach to watch these two-inch creatures crawl to the vast ocean.  I was prepared to be in awe of God’s creation, but I thought it would be a simple, short event.  Let the creatures go.  Their instinct kicks in, they crawl to the ocean, and catch a wave into the rest of their lives.  Except that doesn’t nearly describe the battle these tiny creatures endure. 

Ridley sea turtles have to be released within hours of being hatched.  Since most hatches occur in the middle of the night, these tiny turtles must make their way to the sea around dawn, just as high tide is rolling in or just beginning to fade.  So the turtles crawl to sea, hit a wave, and get tossed right back to where they started, again and again. The process can take hours.  Eventually, they might actually make it out to sea, if they are not snatched up first by a natural predator.  Once in the sea, only a fraction of a percent will see adulthood.  Most will be eaten by sharks or fatally damaged by pollution. 

This truly surprised me.  Why is it so hard for them?  If God made sea turtles to hatch on land and make their way to sea to survive, why is the journey so difficult?  Even without human involvement, this is the classic uphill battle. 

Sound like modern life.  The more you try, the harder it gets.  Life is hard.  Marriage is hard.  Raising children who are anchored in Christ is hard.  No one doubts that.  But why does it get harder the more we try to follow God’s plan for our lives?  That’s a little more difficult. 

This is where the turtle cannot do something we as humans do.  The turtle cannot ask whether all these setbacks and obstacles mean God doesn’t want the turtle to crawl to the sea at all.  When it comes to the specific will of God, sometimes we misinterpret the setbacks and pitfalls for God’s warnings.  After all, if God truly wanted us to reach out to that family in need or start leading family devotions or spend some time helping others or lead a Bible study, wouldn’t He get rid of the roadblocks?  Stop the car from breaking down, make sure the money to do it is there, make a blank spot appear in our calendar?  Just part the obstacles like He did for Moses and the Red Sea?  Maybe this is God’s way of telling us we are going down the wrong path.

Yes, sometimes God immediately, decisively sweeps away every roadblock in the way so that we can fulfill His will.  Yet the Bible also gives us plenty of other stories where things get harder before they get better.  Think about all the years David spent running from Saul.  Samuel had clearly pronounced God’s will that David lead Israel as rightful king.  So why didn’t God make it easy for David to take the throne?  Why did he have to spend so many years running, and shed so much blood when a simple well-timed heart attack sent from God would have prevented so much destruction?  Or think about Gideon.  He finally finds the courage to follow God and strike down altars to idols and free his people from oppressive Midian bullies and what does he get for his efforts?  Criticism from just about everyone he knows. (Judges 7-9) For most of our Biblical heroes, the decision to obey God brought more hardship and setbacks than miraculously delivered moments. 

On the beach that morning I learned something.  God designed Ridley sea turtles to crawl to the ocean in their tiniest, most fragile state.  Yet He chooses not to make the journey easy for them, not to remove the fierce waves and predators all around.  Same for you and I.  God made us to do certain things to glorify Him.  The roadblocks and set backs are not signs that God wants us to stop what we’re doing.  Sometimes they are signs that we just need to swim harder and expect a few more waves.