Life is like a Beach!
How to handle shifting sand
Walking on the beach
We all love beaches, right? There is just something about the sound of the waves crashing on the shore and the breeze coming off the water, that exude peace. Personally, I find it impossible to be at the beach without thinking about the absolute greatness and omnipotence of the One who created it all.
But sometimes beaches can be a bit tricky. With the tides coming and going, the sandy shores are just not always reliable. One morning, my daughter, Elizabeth, and I were out walking on the beach near her house in South Portland, Maine. (We love to walk and talk, so anytime we are able to have a visit, walking is always near the top of our agenda.) The beach we were walking on would have been under water at high tide, but the tide was out and it was a beautiful place to walk.
Little streams running to the ocean
Every so often, we would run into a spot where water was running in little streams to the ocean. This was not normally a formidable obstacle because these little streams were clearly visible.
But of course things are not always as they seem. When the streams were wider than a step, and there was no wood or rocks to help with the crossing, it could get a bit tricky! 😀 As we were navigating one of those crossings, the step was unusually wide. Elizabeth crossed first and was waiting for me on the other side.
My step, while a stretch, landed cleanly on the opposite bank. But, alas, as my foot went down, so did the sandy bank under it. The sand just crumbled away as if it were never meant to be a bank at all. It had fulfilled its temporary purpose apparently, and washed down into the stream to journey into the ocean and wait for the waves to come up and bring it back in again.
Everything is beautiful!
Now we all know what happens when the ground moves out from under our feet, right? We go down – either on our bottoms or our faces. Lol! We go down unless there is someone there to hold us up. In this case, Elizabeth reached out and grabbed me and pulled me back on to more solid ground.
Is that not just like life? We are strolling along and everything is beautiful. Oh, there are the occasional bumps and rough spots, but we can see those coming so we manage to navigate successfully.
But then! Something happens that just takes the ground out from under us. Something totally unexpected and unforeseen. Something that leaves us reeling trying to figure out what on earth is happening. Things don’t make sense anymore. We can’t even see the next step – much less the path beyond!
Don’t do life alone!
What on earth do we do now??? It is times like that when you need someone there to reach out and help you back to firm footing. We were never intended to navigate life alone. Not only has God Himself promised to be with us, but He has magnificently provided others around us who can reach out with human hands to guide us back to safety.
The Bible instructs us in Hebrews 10:25 (NLT), And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
When Jesus was on earth, He chose a community of believers to share His life with. Yes, He was teaching and training them for a mission, but also showing them how life should be done. After all, they were the ones who would be left to show the early church how to carry on the model that Jesus had left. In Acts 2:42, we are shown that example: And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Find someone to do life with!
The kind of fellowship that this verse refers to is not the typical after-church meal, or maybe eating together on Wednesday night before service. No, according to Strong’s Lexicon, this fellowship (Koinonia) was something much, much, much deeper. These people were devoted to partnering together in life. They were helping each other. Their social connections were so deep that they knew each other’s needs and heartaches. They were there to help each other stay on a firm footing.
Paul David Trip said, “We live in long-term networks of terminally casual relationships.” (New Morning Mercies, July 12) Terminally casual relationships do not produce those who can pick you up when the ground falls out from under your feet. Make the decision to find people that you can do life with!
See you out there! 🙂
GUARD RAIL: Do not do life alone!
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Acts 2:42