Beach Trip C:

I’ve come to terms that I’m burning both sides of the rope
And I’m hoping that self-control would kick in before I’m choking off
The sin that be destroying every fiber I got
I need the Lord in every way I’ll never make it I’m not
Going back to the way I was before Christ in my life

I couldn’t do it I would lose it there’s no point to the fight
And I’m writing this song, for the people who don’t belong
I pray away the pain you feel from all the things that went wrong
Inside a life that’s filled with anger and disappointment
Cause daddy treated you weaker than all of the other kids
It’s annoying and I feel for all of you who wanna give up
You feel stuck I feel the same way Lord help us stay up
You couldn’t pay me to abandon the idea of true hope
That I could make it through this life into a place where there’s no crying
I’m dying to find You with open arms when I go
Knowing You love me and You waiting to give rest to my soul

Leaving the church office on Wednesday, I knew where I was headed, but I was so unaware of what my soul, heart, and mind would experience on this classic beach trip.

Unaccompanied in a car except with your phone, which brings excitement with every sporadic text message, you’re listening to your iPod, it’s so hard not to get lost in deep reflection. The song above came across my stereo. I’ve listened to it so many times, at least 100, but never before have those bolded lyrics above stood out like they did that day. My heart was filled with peace. Harmony and tranquility filled every twine of my being with love.

But, that wasn’t even the beginning of the restoration God had in store for me:

Walking on the beach at night, I find it almost unfeasible not to see God speaking to me. He so often speaks to me symbolically, because he knows that’s how my mind thinks.

Immediately after peaking my head above the sand dune, and beginning my walk down the beach God began to speak to me. He spoke to me through the water, the waves, the sand, the sky, the stars, the wind, the lights, and the people.

God showed me the splendor that is romance. There we’re a few couples littered across the beach. There we’re old ones, and young ones. A few of them we’re walking down the beach, holding each others hands, others just gazing out into God’s creation, while in the embrace of the one they love. One, even, getting a little to “romantic” on the beach, I inadvertently interrupted them with my being there. It just gets your mind racing about when you’ll be gazing into the stars with that “one”.

When I made it to the waters edge God showed me the stars. He reminded me that he put every one of them in their place, and can call them all out by name.

He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name. Psalm 147:4

If I can believe he knows the location and the name of every sole star that I can see, even the millions I can not, then I should have conviction that he knows all of my tribulations and he has his hand on each one of them. I rejoice in knowing that I have a God that knows everything about me, even that in which I don’t.

I looked up in the sky and decided to begin to to relate friends to stars. When I found a distinct star that I knew I could, optimistically, find again, I would recount them to a friend. So now, when I see that star I will think of them. Pretty nifty, huh?

God spoke to me any so many more ways. But, it would take me years to find the words to describe them. I was filled with him, he was surrounding me, I was at serenity, and he brought me so much comfort.

The last thing he spoke to me was a familiar favorite of mine. We must allow our light to shine, always, whether it is in the pitch of night, or in the light of the sun. It is so easy to let our individual light shine when it’s dark, and no one else is around. The hard part is allowing our individual light shine when the space if flooded by the lights of others. Walking back, leaving the beach, I looked to the stars one last time. I saw how bright they shined in the night sky, but as my line of sight moved closer to the town, the light that immersed from it flooded out the twinkling lights from the sky. Depressed by the symbolism of allowing our light to blend in with our surroundings, God again showed me. A lighting bug flew in front of my eyes, and blinked its distinct radiant light in front of me, showing me that it’s not impossible to let our light distinctly shine in a sky flooded with light.

God Bless,

Joe Roy

Don't you love it when you're happy, I know I do, it's about time too.