I love to go to the beach it’s really my favorite place to be for sheer relaxation. There is nothing more beautiful than a sunset shining over the waves making them sparkle like someone sprinkled diamonds or the sky has shaken loose some stars to ride the breakers up to the sand. Next to a beautiful sunset would be lying on the sand still warm from the day and seeing the long reflection of the moon shining over the water with the great expanse of sky showing all the constellations in the stars. I am not a swimmer but I love to walk out about waste deep and dodge waves, or better still get into a big inner tube and float. I love to walk a long distance from my little space on the beach and watch the hotel get small as I go a great distance, having to turn around and walk back not so much. Having said that there is one thing that I find very unpleasant, aside from stepping on a pop-top someone carelessly left in the sand, and someone made a statement tonight that made me think of it. I hate walking in the edge of the water where your feet sink into the sand and you pull against the force of the sand and water trying to put one foot in front of the other. It’s a real work out especially if you have walked a great distance. How is that relevant to what was said to me? I asked someone how they were doing, the description of how they feel was one that I could so identify with, maybe you will also, it was the feeling that life is like walking in mud, just trying to get from one day to another. Let me ask you a question, what do you feel you are here on earth to do? Is there purpose in your life or are you on an inner tube floating over the waves hoping that a big swell doesn’t come along to upend you? Sometimes I feel like I have floated way out past where the waves are raucous to the place where it is calmer and more gentle, however the big bummer there is that suddenly I realize that I am way over my head and knowing that I have a dreadful fear of the water going over my head and that I would absolutely drown if I fell into the water I get scared to continue. I try to stay calm and use my hands to paddle myself closer to my safety zone and basically hold my breath until I make it only to get thrown under the water because my safety zone has those foamy breakers that can drive you into the sands of life. That is kind of the way I have felt for the past almost twenty-one weeks since my dad went to heaven. I don’t know if you have noticed but somehow I cannot use the D word, just can’t. I have had to take care of business and deal with insurance companies and bills and although I have taken care of all their business for the past ten years or so I have never had to find all the strings of a person’s life and try to draw them together into one neat package, almost impossible for a person that has lived for 95 years.
All of us have things that happen everyday and maybe you just don’t tell anyone, you are afraid of seeming inadequate, or weak, but you are afraid of what will come next. Will you be asked to do something that is a little over your head and you aren’t that great a swimmer? There is one school of thought that says, “Fake it till you make it”, well that might work for something simple but there are things for which it wouldn’t work. What just came to my mind is the impossibility it would be for me to have to solve some great mathematical problem… no faking it there, right? You have been with me on my journey lately and know most of the things I have faced because I am totally transparent with you, but I don’t know what’s going on with you…so I just imagine that you are facing similar problems and need prayer, a listening ear, someone that can really understand and empathize with your life situation. I can now fully feel your sorrow if you have lost a loved one, if you have been divorced, been a single parent, rejected by people you trusted for whatever reason, had times when you didn’t know how your next bill would be paid or been wakened in the middle of the night with nightmares so real you are on your feet without knowing how you got there, but there are many things you may be facing I have no knowledge of except hearing it from some of you. There are abusive spouses, both male and female, drug or alcohol addict partners or maybe you have the addiction problem yourself and many other things that I have never experienced, so where do you turn when you really need the friend that knows it all? I have the answer to that, it is found in Hebrews 4: 14-16 “Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.” Yep you guessed it, it is my friend, an old hymn says it best, “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and grief’s to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” You can make it, I’m sure of it! Peace!
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