My Day At The Beach

Today, I took a long-needed vacation. I woke up and simply got ready to head out. I didn’t turn on the computer at all. No email to be checked today. I was going to relax and enjoy myself. My roommate and I and a friend of ours were all taking a drive to the beach and we were going to spend the day there relaxing in the sun and soaking up surf.

It took a lot to get us there. Apparently, the electrical aspect of my cigarette letter doesn’t work so my friend’s GPS couldn’t help us out. That’s great. So we have to rush by our seminary and print directions off of mapquest and use battery power on the GPS whenever we needed any more help. For those interested, we made it there and back and did not get lost once.

I rolled down my windows as we were getting close. If there’s one thing I like about the beach, it’s getting to smell the salty air of the ocean before you get there. I remember making the remark that I hadn’t been to the beach in a long time. My friend asked how long and I said a few years and he said “You’re in for a treat then.” Indeed I was, to see the ocean again.

Yet I wondered about that. Am I just in for a treat because I haven’t seen it in a few years? How long do I have to be away before I realize the joy that it is? If I lived near the beach and could see the ocean every day, would that make it less of a wonder? I can look at awe at the ocean, and I think that it’s right that I do so, but should I not do that with everything?

Shouldn’t I appreciate the sun that I see rise every morning? Shouldn’t I appreciate my roommate, my dear friend who I get to see every day? Shouldn’t I appreciate the moon and the stars that are there for me every night? Shouldn’t I appreciate the modern conveniences that I have every day that make my life so much easier? How much am I taking for granted? Most especially, what of the cross and the empty tomb?

Readers of the blog know also that I can’t swim a lick. However, I simply stand in the ocean when I go and feel the surf come and beat against me. It was such a rush of freedom as I’d stretch my arms out to my side and then I’d sometimes raise them up to experience the full joy of the surf and of the ocean breeze. The back of my mind is thinking, “Someone might walk behind you and think you’re charismatic.”

Oh well. I’m not, but I am simply enjoying that process.

It makes me wonder why I don’t enjoy life more. I believe that God is one who never experiences boredom and never can. He is more amazed and in wonder of the ocean than I am. Isn’t it odd that we live in such a bored society? We have more channels than we’ve ever had before and yet, more people are bored than they’ve ever been. We have people going to electronics areas buying things simply because they’re bored with what they already have. Some people have to go see a new movie every week.

Am I any better a lot of times?

Could it be we base it on our feelings so often? Am I any better then? I often don’t feel like doing what I do, but that is because of emotional drain from so many areas and that is the type of emotion that simply builds up and tears down every other area that it comes into contact with. Could this be why so many marriages end in divorce? One spouse gets bored with the other and goes off to find sweeter waters because they don’t feel love any more?

I thought when walking on the beach once that if I really believed what I said I believed, I’d realize the presence of the omnipresent God is all around me. Why didn’t I think about that more? Why didn’t I embrace the joy that that thought is capable of bringing? These are the questions I ask myself. What would it be like if we all realized that Christianity is true?

Our drive home was a drive of talking about apologetics, talking about girls, talking about friendship and our life experiences. It was the typical conversation of three ministry students who are guys heading home. My feet are just now starting to recover from that long drive, but it was a time of blessing as we shared many things important to us and many things I can’t go into. These are things among friends that those not in the circle aren’t privy to.

Naturally, our plans include going back before the next semester begins. My day at the beach is a day to think about so many issues in my life and in the world. There will be much to ponder and I hope somehow I can have work go easier so that I can have time to consider all of it.