The Day I Found God At the Beach

La Playa!

While in Honduras, I got some rest.  It's unusual..I know...the normal schedule of a mission trip is go...go...go! As it should be, because the team wants to make as much impact in one place as time allows.  I am still grateful for that half day at the beach.

We arrived and immediately I felt at peace.  There were no worries...even though the bathroom stalls didn't have doors or that two little local girls were trying out their entrepreneurship skills at the bathroom door as they charged for toilet paper.  
That didn't matter. 

 I couldn't wait to get my feet wet.  I couldn't wait to rest.

At this beach, I found it.  I met God there.  This rest wasn't defined as a pause in the schedule of a intense work-filled week.  Not just a blip in my international travel radar.  
Not just for a moment, or a half day.  
I found what God's rest looks like in my life.  

I found and experienced His quiet Presence.

As I silently walked the long stretch of hot sandy beach, I experienced God alone.  His presence permeated my soul and I drank it in.  The time was peaceful and lovely.  
It's difficult to describe but they were holy moments.    

I was able to rest in His sufficiency as the next four days were loaded full of challenges.  I'll have to admit that coming to this point, on this beach on that day, I was lacking.  I was a little worn out mentally. Coming to this point was exactly where God wanted me to be so that He could show me His sufficiency and His idea of rest
rest that can only be found in Him.  

I was engulfed in true rest in His Presence.

I walked and talked by myself drinking in every sandy pebble, every shell, every dead fish, every Kodak moment.  In fact, I took the most pictures of the week on this sandy shore.  
I want to go back to that spot often, 
I want to remember how God felt, what I experienced. 
I want to relive those moments of awe and wonder.

I need to go back there every day.  I need to feel God's presence daily.

God and I had some conversations in that restful place.  He still calls me there.  
He reminded me that He has plenty of those holy moments waiting for me when I seek Him.  That I don't have to strive to get there, 
He is not going to run out of holiness when I take my time to seek it.  
There was no need to hurry, there will be plenty for me.  

When I rush and hurry, scurry and strive, I forget that I am His.  I forget my place in His kingdom as His kingdom builder, I forget Who He Is.  
I forget.  
I forgot ....I am royalty.  
I had forgotten.  
But God reminded me that day. 
And...
Since then...God has reminded me that I am His.  And it's okay for me to say this.
This is me being open with you. 
This is my humble confession that I had been trying too hard to be God's.  
All I needed to do and still need ...
is to say ...
that this is not earned, this isn't worked, this is.

My being God's child and my place in His Kingdom is not about me writing the best blog, 
or writing some devotional thoughts connected with scripture that would touch you deeply, or being the best radio DJ that you hear on your radio.  
My being His doesn't depend on anything that I might do or say. 
It's this....being one of His many children depends on Who He Is.  

So stop striving...stop forgetting that God is the "I AM".  
Stop and pause and take a look around.
Look at His beauty.
Look at what God has done in your life, 
look at what He has given you, 
look at Jesus on the cross.

Look at Jesus, take time to worship Jesus.

This life I lead, this life I write is not about me.  It's about Jesus and lifting His name high. 
It's about making His name known.  
I saw rest on that day on the beach.  I saw God in each captured moment.  
Awe...wonder...worship.

My heart is full as I worship and remember who God is. 
That's rest...that's God's Presence.

Ps. 37:7 "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes."

Yes, Lord, I will be still.