I just spent the good portion of a week with a group of Middle School youth at the Beach. We call it Beach Camp. It's really an excuse to have time with them and to give them time to bond as a group. It's so simple and yet the results are amazing.
The funny thing is that we plan for devotional time in the morning and at night, and we do a pretty good job of making it interactive and fun, but even though God is evident in those moments, he doesn't limit himself to the times we make room for God.
It's at the beach when God comes out in all his shinning glory. Whether it be kids jumping through the waves, or volleyball players digging for a return, or just the simple act of burying your pastor in the sand. God appears when we least expect it. We don't even have to say something profound and ruin it. All we need to do is laugh and smile, slap someone on their sunburned back, and experience God's dream for human community. There is a sense of contentment or shalom that we feel even if we cannot describe with words.
All too often we want to keep God in the church, or at least in a Mission Trip sponsored by the church. All too often we in the church want to tell the world come to us and we will show you God. The truth is that God is out there and we in the church need only to get outside our walls to experience God delight. As some, more lately, have said, we in the church do not have a monopoly on God, rather it is our job to go out there and find what God is doing in the world and lend a helping hand.
Wouldn't it be nice if all the church was known for is the people who are willing to lend a helping hand? Wouldn't it be nice if we were a little more accessible to others, rather than so busy running our programs or debating our theological points of view? Wouldn't it be nice if we just went to the beach and experience creation, humanity, sin and grace all under the glorious beams of God's love.
Peace,
Pal
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