The Beach

I am at the beach.  It's a wonderful place to be.  It's a quiet beach...not crowded...everyone is friendly...water is warm...sand is soft...it's lovely.  It is no secret that if one is going to spend time by the water that sunscreen is an absolute must. Am I right?  Is this not the first thing you learn at going to the beach 101?  I know this. I covered my girls before they headed out to the beach very carefully.  I also sprayed myself down thoroughly as well before heading out...or so I thought.  Off I went to enjoy the wind and the waves.  I played frisbee with the guys...watched my girls have a blast chasing the birds and burying themselves in the sand.  I could feel that the sun was hot even thought there was a wonderful breeze that masked it well.  Haylee and I decided to go for a walk and while walking we met some little girls just her age and they started playing together and had a grand time.  I talked to the mother as our children played and this went on and on and on.  I didn't realize that I was standing directly in the sun the entire time.  When I got back to the house I realized that I was in trouble.  I was cooking myself and didn't even realize it.  The gentle breeze and my feet in the water totally masked the damage that was being done to the rest of me.  Needless to say it was a rough night.  My legs got the worst of it and it hurt to touch the sheet trying to sleep.  I was in pain, but in addition to that I was pretty mad at myself for letting myself get in that condition in the first place because I knew better and I thought I had taken the necessary precautions. 

Here is where this takes me.

The sun is not a bad thing.  It can be a bad thing if we don't respect it as we should, but it's not the sun's fault that I got burned.  It makes me think of being in the world.  If you think about the life of Jesus....He spent plenty of time under the umbrella of safety in prayer with the Father.  We are safe from the sun if we sit under an umbrella in the shade too.  However...Jesus didn't spend his time in ministry under an umbrella at all.  He was in the direct sunlight.  Jesus spend most of his time surrounded by sinners and the undesirables.  How did he not get burned?  Well, he spent time in prayer, which was probably his sunscreen...and I'm certain he reapplied as often as needed.  We are told that he was tempted in every way yet was without sin.  Amazing to think about isn't it?  When I think  back about the times I failed I get frustrated because looking back the remedy was so very simple!  Why didn't I just reapply the sunscreen of prayer?  Why didn't I take shelter under the umbrella of other believers?  It says in the Bible that in every temptation we are faced with God gives us a way out, there is always an escape.  Why don't we take it?  Well, sometimes it's much like the gentle breeze the kept me from feeling the pain of the damage that was being done.  The situations that we find ourselves in start in such a subtle way that we don't even know it until it is too late.  Sometimes we think that we are tough enough that we don't even need sunscreen...we can handle it.  Yup.  I've been guilty of that too. 

Oh, the lessons that we learn along the way.  The pain that we endure when we really didn't need to.  I have to say that the more I learn of this life and the more I learn of myself, the more I realize that there is way more that I can't handle than I can.  I'm OK with that, because the God I serve can handle it all.  My prayer for myself is that I remember that so I don't get burned again.