And Now I See -- Too Much

I suppose most people, unless you are as organized as my wife, make their preparations for trips and end up forgetting something. Mine was to be a simple retreat, Monday afternoon through Tuesday lunch, an hour or so down the road at the Grand Strand (that's Myrtle Beach). It was to be just me, the Lord, and the ocean, two books and the Bible. I'm blessed to have several people in the church who have offered me the use of their places at the beach, so I finally decided to take advantage of one of the offers. My wife had been out of town, and even though the house was quiet, it was too easy to get involved in other things there, so the beach was to provide an opportunity without distractions. Monday evening was great! I read, prayed, studied, meditated, and ultimately relaxed and fell asleep sitting up. Tuesday morning I arose refreshed and ready for some beach time with the Lord. I could easily imagine the Lord walking along the beach, calling to the disciples who were out fishing, as in the gospel of John. I have to say that my usual idea of spiritual meditation with Christ is a quiet mountain stream, but that was three hours away, and there was no offer of residence there. The reason I don't like the beach is the sand -- it gets into everything, and the sun -- I always end up getting burnt, even if I'm under the umbrella, fully clothed. So as I prepared for that beach time, the Lord and I walking together, being teacher and disciple, it dawned on me that I had forgotten to pack my hat. And I knew what the top of my head would look like, even in March, if I didn't wear a hat. So I went to a Christian store and bought one of those designs that is supposed to appear as a trademark, but with a Christian message and witness. This one was green and looked as if to be a Mountain Dew emblem, but instead said "Jesus Meant to Die for You." So donning my newly acquired cap, I headed for the strand.

This is a great time to visit the beach. It's not crowded, the temperatures are comfortable, and this day the tide was on its way out, which meant once I got across the dunes, the sand would be wet and compact, and there would be plenty of beach to walk on without getting wet or sandy. The beach was a little more crowded than I expected, but I walked, looked, sat, meditated, prayed, and drew nigh unto Him. However upon preparing to leave, I finally noticed the age of most of my neighbors -- college age. It must have been spring break for some colleges. As I strode along, now looking up instead of down, I could not help but notice that most of the young women had barely anything on to cover their bodies. With my wife having been out of town for over a week, I was challenged with how to respond to this scene. These were not the images of Christ on the shore and disciples fishing. Christians, and especially pastors, need times of retreat. we also need to realize that we will be challenged and tested, usually immediately after that retreat. This time my prayers were still rising from my lips when the challenge came. I had several choices. I could have been driven by lust and feasted on the scene of nearly nude, very shapely bodies, in which case I would have reduced those young women to sexual objects rather than children of God. I could have become "holier than thou", and become angered by the standards of today's young people, which in truth would still have reduced those young women to sexual objects while I fought my own sexual desires and lusts. Or, the path I chose, I could have continued to walk with Christ, and viewed those young men and women as neither male nor female, but as either lost lambs needing Christ, or lambs belonging to Christ. I chose to pray for them instead of "desire" them, and even though the time was not right for me to approach them about their eternal destiny, I prayed that God would put the right person there for them at just the right time to share that message with them. And thus I walked from the beach, despising the sand, instead of my "flesh." Thank you, Jesus!

And my hat still proclaimed, Jesus meant to die for them.