{"id":42621,"date":"2013-11-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/revival-is-like-catching-40-foot-wave\/"},"modified":"2013-11-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T00:00:00","slug":"revival-is-like-catching-40-foot-wave","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/revival-is-like-catching-40-foot-wave\/","title":{"rendered":"Revival Is Like Catching a 40-Foot Wave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What would it feel like to catch a 40-foot wave and ride it into shore? During a competition at surfing hot spot Maverick&#39;s, about 22-miles from San Francisco, a <em class=\"citation\">Sports Illustrated<\/em> story described the incredible rides of a surfer named Darryl [the] &quot;Flea&quot; Virostko:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>For his first wave, a 40-footer, he made a beautiful drop, essentially skiing down the face of the wave. The breaking wave exploded in a huge whitewash and Virostko raced ahead of it to safety &hellip; On his second ride, Virostko did something few surfers in the world can do. Rather than ski down the face of the 35-foot wave, he used his feet to point the nose of the board straight up and went free-falling &hellip; He positioned himself to catch the oncoming barrel and rode inside it. When he emerged from the tube, he surfed the wave to its terminus &hellip; On his third wave, Virostko &hellip; took off right at the peak of a 40-footer, made a graceful drop and rode it serenely. His [whole body] looked utterly relaxed though he was being chased by a wave big enough to kill.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Imagine sitting on a little board and having a forty-foot wall of water roaring at you and then deciding to stand up on that little board. I don&#39;t think anyone who surfs at Maverick&#39;s comes away thinking, &quot;That was boring. Maybe tonight I can do something exciting like watch TV!&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>A revival is a lot like catching a wave. At different times in history, God has built a wave for the church to ride. We can&#39;t manufacture a wave on our own efforts, but we can experience the thrill of getting on our boards and riding it in. That&#39;s why surfers use a phrase that also applies to Christians&mdash;&quot;If it swells, ride it!&quot; Like Virostko, we can be &quot;utterly relaxed&quot; while we&#39;re &quot;being chased by a wave big enough to kill.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3418,3464,3921,4156,4159,4622,4671,4699,4802,4838,4973],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-42621","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-anointing","tax_ctp_tags-awakenings","tax_ctp_tags-experiencing-god","tax_ctp_tags-holy-spirit","tax_ctp_tags-holy-week","tax_ctp_tags-pentecost","tax_ctp_tags-power-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-presence-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-renewal","tax_ctp_tags-revival","tax_ctp_tags-signs-wonders"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Revival Is Like Catching a 40-Foot Wave - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/revival-is-like-catching-40-foot-wave\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Revival Is Like Catching a 40-Foot Wave - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What would it feel like to catch a 40-foot wave and ride it into shore? During a competition at surfing hot spot Maverick&#039;s, about 22-miles from San Francisco, a Sports Illustrated story described the incredible rides of a surfer named Darryl [the] &quot;Flea&quot; Virostko: For his first wave, a 40-footer, he made a beautiful drop, Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/revival-is-like-catching-40-foot-wave\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/revival-is-like-catching-40-foot-wave\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/revival-is-like-catching-40-foot-wave\/\",\"name\":\"Revival Is Like Catching a 40-Foot Wave - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-11T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-11-11T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/revival-is-like-catching-40-foot-wave\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/revival-is-like-catching-40-foot-wave\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/revival-is-like-catching-40-foot-wave\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Revival Is Like Catching a 40-Foot Wave\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Revival Is Like Catching a 40-Foot Wave - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/revival-is-like-catching-40-foot-wave\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Revival Is Like Catching a 40-Foot Wave - CT Pastors","og_description":"What would it feel like to catch a 40-foot wave and ride it into shore? 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