In the summer of 1968, a friend and I headed down the California coast toward the border with Mexico in a ’59 Volkswagen bug. Our surfboards were latched onto a roof rack. We planned to surf every break we encountered as we headed south from Santa Cruz. 

At the time, I was a freshly graduated high school student with not a care in the world except for fulfilling my every desire. Our surf trip was my version of the movie, The Endless Summer. I was anchorless and took advantage of my newfound freedom from everything, including the Lord. 

The internal dissatisfaction of that kind of life began to eat away at my rebelliousness. I was being prepared spiritually for the next year, 1969, when the Jesus Movement was in full bloom.  A set of events would prepare me to follow the voice of the Lord, attend a bible college, meet Jan, and take a new path in my life led by the Spirit of God. 

There is a purpose for our seasons of dissatisfaction. Before we can experience this new life, we must be willing to have the veil of our deception removed, which only God’s Spirit can do. 

As our dissatisfaction increases, we can begin to recognize that only the love of God and His plan for our lives has meaning and purpose. He must become our priority. We will be willing to let go of what we had previously considered freedom to finally encounter the true freedom only He can offer. 

In that process of acceptance, our past begins to pale in comparison to what He has prepared for those who love Him. Our new freedom offers more adventure than any epic journey we could plan. 

Paul wrote about that Spirit-led process, “Whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (II Corinthians 3: 16-17). Our lives of faith will be a constant process of unveiling the love of God and reordering our priorities. 

In the next verse, Paul revealed what will happen to those who follow Him, “So, all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord – who is the Spirit – makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” (vs. 18).  God’s kind of freedom changes the image we have of ourselves and how others see us. We will become His glory-bearers.  

When Jesus reveals Himself to us and invites us to follow Him, He gives us new mercies each day to respond to His leading. That is a choice we will never regret.