The Beach – Lesson 1

It’s almost hard to imagine that anyone could learn anything at a beach.  The beach is where you go to shut your mind off and just relax.  It’s where you go to take your mind off of work and all the things that bother you.  The beach seems to be the place to chill.

However, it seems even sitting on a beach, swimming in the Atlantic Ocean and doing pretty much nothing for the last few days, has prompted a lot of thoughts in my mind.  My family was given the opportunity to enjoy a beach house that belongs to some of our friends from church.  They graciously gave us the key and said, “Stay as long as you like.”  So we have been in North Carolina, swimming in the Atlantic Ocean at Carolina Beach.  It has been an amazing blessing and one that we are very grateful for.

As we walked along the beach, there were millions of shells all along the sand.  Millions all along the length of the beach right at the edge of where the tide would leave them.  This of course prompts hundreds of beach-goers to walk along slowly and pick through the shells.

Which ones are “full” shells?

Which ones appear to have the most value?

Which one could I make a necklace out of?

Is that a starfish?

And probably a hundred other questions that are going through their minds as they pick through the carnage of what used to be alive.

All of these little shells used to have something living inside of them.  They have now come to the end of their life and they have washed up on a beach.  They are picked through and stepped on.  Some are considered worth keeping, others are left on the beach to either be buried in the sand or ultimately swept away with the tide.

So when our life on earth is over, how will people view our lives?  Will they step on over us or will they stop and admire they way we lived?  Not that it is about us, but will we have lived life in a way that brings life to others or brings a smile to the hurting?  Will we make our lives count or not?

I know one day I will die, but I don’t want to end up an empty shell, getting walked on at the beach.  Okay, that won’t happen, but you get the picture.  I want my life to count.  I want to help make life better for other people.  I want to help people discover a God who loves them unconditionally.  I want to see people on spiritual journeys come into a special and new, connection with the Creator of the universe.  I don’t want to live an empty life.  I want to live a full life that points people toward something much bigger than today.

Stop and picture the beach.  What lessons can you learn from the beach?

Lesson 2 coming soon…