beach

by

The Sun Does Not Shine For Me As It Once Did

There was a time when I was happy to sit outside in the direct sun. 

the sun does not shine for me as it once did

Tanning was a big thing for me when I was in my teens and early twenties. I enjoyed soaking up the rays as much as I could. 

I would say that, even ten years ago when I’d go to the beach, I wanted that sunshine to touch all my exposed skin. 

… Though there was a time when I hoped that the sun would cover more of my body than I had exposed to it. That was on the last vacation we took as a whole family. 

We were on a cruise and made a stop at an island with a great beach. I was basking in the sun, when my family noticed that I was only burning on the front of me. 

I told them that the suntan/burn would come around and cover my back too. We all had a good laugh.

But wanting a tan is a thing of my past. I get enough sun to brown my face while biking or playing golf. I don’t need to sit out purposefully and point my face to the sun. 

Now when I go to the beach, I wear a T-shirt unless I’m going in the water … and I sit under an umbrella.

I like being outside, but now I like sitting outside in the shade. 

Right now I’m writing this post outside on the deck at our cottage. The sun is up but I’m under the canopy of an awning, which is a permanent hard roof.

It makes for a great space when it rains – we can still be outside. And when the sun is beating down, we can sit outside and enjoy the sun, without being in the sun. 

So when I’m at the beach I like that I have some cover from the sun. When I’m at our cottage I like being outside and under cover. But when I’m at home, well, we have no cover from the sun on our deck. 

It’s not bad when the sun is low in the sky later in the evening, but for most of the day we are fully exposed. And it’s not just the sun that we are exposed to. I feel exposed to anyone and everyone around. 

Somehow being under an umbrella or awning gives me a sense of protection from the elements and a bit of seclusion from the world.

My wife wonders why I don’t like sitting out on our back deck at home when I’m happy to sit out at the cottage and the beach. 

Well, the answer is pretty simple: I like something over my head. 

And if we could come to some kind of agreement on the type of overhead covering for our deck, I just might be more inclined to spend time out there.

Here’s the thing: In the world we live in, we are exposed to all kinds of things – many that we can’t protect ourselves against. They may even make you feel vulnerable and exposed at times. Well, there is a covering that can keep you living with confidence in our world and that is Jesus Christ. You may find yourself exposed to things you don’t want to be exposed to, but He will be a shade as you go through this world. And ultimately you will be protected from the harsh realities of an eternity in hell. Choose Jesus as your cover.

That’s Life! 

Paul

Question: What do you like most about being under a cover of some kind? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one delivered to your email inbox twice weekly.

by

I’m Looking For A Good Sunset 

I like a good sunset, but I usually gaze at them only when I’m at the beach. 

The other day I discovered it’s not a bad idea to look for them elsewhere.

… We had finished dinner with our son, Mike, who was home, spending some of his vacation with us. We were letting the meal settle when Lily said, “Why don’t you go out and show Mike your new drone?” 

I wasn’t too excited at first. I’d flown my drone over our house many times and was bored with videos of just sky and subdivisions below. 

But she urged me a couple of times to do it, saying that the sun was setting and I could film the sunset.

You know, it’s one thing to stand on a beach, looking over the glistening water at the sinking fireball just above the horizon. It’s a totally different thing to look up over the fences, houses and wires to see a little portion of the sky as the sun begins to disappear.

I could stay on the beach for a long time watching the sun go down and the clouds change colour from orange to red to purple. Trying to see the colours in the sky over the tops of houses is not something I like to spend a lot of time gawking at.  

Well, we went outside and I figured I would take the drone up, show Mike how it flies, give him an idea of the quality of video and pictures you can get with it … and then bring it down. 

When I got the drone up, however, the sun had just snuck below the horizon. The sky was absolutely amazing! 

From where we were standing in front of our garage, we could not have known there was any kind of a sunset. But when the drone got up to 20, 30, then 90 metres high and turned to face the west – Wow! The sunset was every bit as spectacular as if we were standing on the beach with the whole sky as a visual screen right before us. 

There may not have been any reflection off any water below, but the colours were incredible. I couldn’t get enough video of it. Finally I switched to the camera and shot some stills of the incredible scene.

If Lily hadn’t encouraged me to go out and show Mike my drone, I never would have even known the sunset was as spectacular as it was. 

When we are at the lake, we make a point of going to the beach at sunset. At home we never give it a thought. 

My sight lines might be restricted in my front or back yard, but 90 metres up I can record the whole sky. 

From now on, I will be taking note of the time of sunset and getting ready to fly my drone to get a glimpse of the magnificent painting that’s filling the canvas that day. 

Here’s the thing: It is really easy to become blind to what God is doing. You get busy with life and what’s coming next. Maybe you’re too focussed on what’s concerning you, or busy juggling the many things you have on your plate. Just like how we can miss the sunset that’s right outside, showing off God’s creative handiwork, we can miss the amazing things God is doing in our lives. Stop and look around; take notice. God is active in your life; He is speaking to you, answering your prayers, and opening doors for you. Just take some time to notice. Don’t miss His magnificence in your life on a daily basis. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What keeps you from noticing God in your life? Leave your comments below.

by

How To Receive Unexpected Gifts

Sometimes you get something unexpected, something you had really wanted but didn’t think you’d get. That happened to me this week.

IMG_0010

One of the signs you’re a pro at the beach is how you get all your paraphernalia to it. We have about a seven minute walk to the lake so we take everything we’re going to need with us in one trip.

In the old days (that would be the days when our children were little), we had lots of stuff to carry.

There are people who park their cars at the beach, and make trips with their coolers, chairs, blankets, umbrellas etc. Then there are those who walk and take very little, like a blanket and a book.

We like to take enough to make us comfortable for a few hours. We’ve tried a few different options over the years, and finally settled on a wagon.

We loaded everything in a big wagon and hauled it down and back each time. It worked really well, except for the person who had to pull it back from the beach (up hill all the way).

However, in the last few years we haven’t really needed the wagon but we have more beach stuff than is easily carried. We needed something in-between.

What we’ve seen work well are those baby trailers you hook up to your bike. If you’re not using them for child transportation, they work great as a wee moving van.

The problem with them is they cost loads of money – enough that it is hard to justify getting one just to take your stuff down to the beach and back.

My brother’s been looking for a used one for a couple of years now. Once he thought he found one at a garage sale but it looked broken so he didn’t bother to get it.

Just minutes later someone else bought it and it actually worked fine. John’s been kicking himself ever since for not investigating it more thoroughly.

But the other week he came across one, and the owner said he could have it – for free! It was just missing one piece, which John ordered online … it was good to go in a week.

And then the other day, John came over to my place with his trailer hooked up to his bike with all his beach stuff in it. It was sitting in our driveway when the guy across the street came over.

He asked if I also wanted a trailer because his son had one they were just going to give away. I jumped at the chance!

It was in great shape, and hooked up to my bike easily. I was now a beach pro! When you ride down to the beach with your little trailer filled with your chairs, your beach umbrella, your drinks, snacks and games, people know you’re experienced . . . that you’ve been beached.

Someday, maybe – many years from now – we may even let a grandchild or two get pulled to the beach in it.

Here’s the thing:  God sometimes surprises us with good gifts we never expected to get. When He does, be quick to recognize the source of the gift, and be thankful.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you received unexpectedly that was from the hand of God? I’d like to hear from you; you can leave a comment below.

by

When Your Vacation Becomes Work

I’m used to a vacation where I spend a lot of time relaxing at the beach under an umbrella or dodging the waves in the water. That’s why this vacation seems to be more like work.

IMG_0006

Hey, who am I kidding? – it is work! We’ve been working on our deck at the cottage for about four days now. We haven’t put a foot on the beach yet, though we looked at it from the window of a restaurant we had dinner in one night.

We haven’t gone for walks down to the beach or walks along the beach. We haven’t even broken out the beach umbrella yet.

It’s been work, work work, scrubbing, scraping, washing, building. For some people who like projects that might sound like fun. But when you fall into bed each night exhausted, with muscles aching, back breaking, it takes just a little of the fun out of it. It’s work!

… We’re done now and the beach is calling.

We’ve had good weather so far – that is, we’ve had good working weather – a good deal of sun but a gentle, cool breeze to keep you moving and not overwhelmed by heat.

Now we need some hot – REAL hot – humid weather to draw me down to the lake like a magnet to a fridge … unless you have one of those stainless steel fridges … but you get what I mean.

Don’t get me wrong, the deck looks great, but I came here for a vacation, not work.

I want to go a day without a drill in my hand or a compound miter saw next to my wife. She does all the cutting, by the way …

Many years ago, I had a couple of incidents of cutting my finger: once with a really toothy saw for about seven stitches, and once with an utility knife for about four stitches. After that the family started taking sharp instruments away from me. I had to prove I would be safe using standard cutlery for a while after that.

I just told that story to my neighbour who wondered why Lily was doing all the sawing. I explained that it’s her mitre saw; I bought it for her.

But hey, let’s get back to the beach! I’m thinking that a nice patch of silky sand will do. I’ll throw up the umbrella by the shore, maybe even sip a little Dr. Pepper. I’ve got a book I’ve been wanting to read and that’s a perfect spot to crack it open on my iPad.

Here’s the thing: Your relationship with God should not seem like work. It’s a relationship not a job. So if you find it work to keep up with God, in terms of time spent with Him or service you do for Him, you need to change things up. You need to focus on making your relationship with God more relational. It might be as simple as how you talk to Him, and what you talk about. That’s where I would start.

That’s Life!

Paul

by

Have You Ever Got Tired Of Trying To Plan A Vacation?

I have taken a winter vacation about three times in my life. One time doesn’t count because I was in my early 20’s. At that age, you neither appreciate nor understand any benefits of a winter vacation. A great portion of your life is vacation!

beach

The other two winter vacations have both been in the last 14 years. One was a trip to Florida, and Disney World, near the end of a winter, and the other more recent one was a Caribbean Cruise at the beginning of a new year.

Both times I’ve told myself that this winter vacation thing is a great idea, and we should do it again. But with ten years between the first two, and four years since the last one, we really haven’t made it a habit.

There are always very good reasons why we don’t. Scheduling is a big deal. It’s not like I can just book any time and go. I have lots of arrangements to make, and then sometimes there are meetings and activities that I can’t get out of.

Money is always an issue. It would be nice to go on a winter vacation and it not affect your wallet but, no matter how cheap people say their trip was, when you start to look for a winter vacation, there are never those kinds of deals.

Lil and I decided to take a winter vacation this year to somewhere warm. At first we had big plans – some all-inclusive resort, where the beaches have white sand and the sun never stops shining.

But every place we checked looked like it would be a way more than we wanted to spend. We then had plans of using a relative’s time share, which would cut the cost down considerably. But when we looked at the dates we could go, there was nothing available.

Now things at work are changing and I may have to change my vacation dates to make it fit. I’m thinking that if we want a winter vacation it might have to involve setting up a tent in our living room for a week!

In some ways, that’s kind of Biblical. There was a festival in Israel, called the Feast of Tabernacles, where they all set up booths (tents) and lived in them for a week. Mind you, the purpose of that was to remember that God had the Israelites live in tents when they left Egypt.

I wonder if that’s where we got the idea for modern camping … where after a week of camping you begin rejoicing that you have a solid roof over your head, a bed that doesn’t stir up claustrophobic nightmares, and you can cook without lighting a match or rubbing a couple of sticks together.

Wow, I’m getting tired and fed up with trying to figure out a winter vacation. Maybe that’s the real reason we have done it so infrequently. You feel like you need another vacation from trying to plan for one.

Here’s the thing:  We often think that if God is in something, it will just fall into place. Well, sometimes things are difficult and take a lot of work, even when God is in them. Sometimes we might have doubts along the way, even when God is in it. Many times it’s not until it’s over that we can look back and say, “See, God was in it the whole time.” … Don’t give up.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is something you had doubts about, but, in the end, saw God in it all? Leave your comment below.

by

Vacation Pain

“Back to the salt mines.” One of my buddies used to say that after noon hockey. He didn’t actually work in a salt mine, but he did have to go back to work. I guess after playing shinny, the idea of work seemed unpleasant.

CIMG8790

If you are someone who works in a salt mine, I’m not saying your work is hard and undesirable; it’s just an expression.

So, if a guy feels that way after an hour or so of hockey, how is one supposed to feel going back to work after a month of vacation? It’s not like my church has a secret tunnel in the basement that leads to large rooms of white crystal rock that I have to break apart all day.

But I do have some apprehensions going back after vacation. In any line of work, there are things you look forward to and things you don’t, things you enjoy doing and things you don’t.

Your work can be 90% enjoyable, invigorating, motivating and a few other desirable “atings”, but it’s that smaller percentage that weighs you down and has you wishing the vacation isn’t coming to an end.

So, at the end of vacation, you develop a little schizophrenia: part of you can’t wait to get back and another part of you wants to put on the brakes and stay where you are.

What happens is you start to act differently. You don’t have the same relaxed, carefree attitude you had a few days earlier. You go to the beach, but you don’t chill at the beach; you begin to strategize.

The water becomes your goals that are so hard to take hold of, the sand is like time that slips through your fingers and the people lying on the beach become the steps to how you will get to the water before the sand runs out.

You try to savour your last days of vacation, but your wife looks at you while you stare off in the distance and says, “See, he’s already back at work.”

There is no way to get back to the “chilaxed” zone you were in only a matter of days before. A switch has been turned on and it doesn’t matter how hot the sun is and how good it feels to sit under your beach umbrella sipping a Dr. Pepper, digging your feet in the sand, as you read or catch a few winks. You are there, but not really there.

Instead, you are sitting in your office sorting the mail that piled up, trying to make headway on hundreds of emails, all while getting back into the rhythm of your work.

Then you wake up, take a sip of your pop, wipe the drool from the corner of your mouth, glance at the people walking along the beach, and get back to reading your book. It was all a dream, a big scary dream. You still have 3 days of vacation left to enjoy.

Here’s the thing: Like the burden of work that overcomes us at the end of vacation, the burdens of sin, shame or self doubt can weigh us down even after we’ve confessed them. But God wants to take those burdens from us. We have to figure out how we can off-load those burdens to Him and not take them back.

That’s life!

Paul

Question: What is the hardest thing to come back to after your vacation?  Leave your comment below.

by

Don’t Let the Sun Go Down

It is interesting to me that every night people gather at the lake to look out and watch the sun go down. It doesn’t matter what the weather is like, if it’s cloudy, or even stormy.  They still show up at the beach, and gather like droids.  I know, because I’ve done it.

People line the beach with their lawn chairs, cameras, and video recorders.  They sit in the sand or just stand and stare as this orangey red ball slowly sinks below the horizon.

They’re mesmerized by a sight that happens every day.

It’s the same thing, you know – the sun always goes down.  You can count on it; it never does anything different.  It doesn’t’ go back a bit or stop and leave everyone in suspense like it did in the Bible once.  No, it does the same thing every night: it goes down and drops below the horizon.  Yet people come every night to see it happen, almost as if it wouldn’t happen if they didn’t come.

People don’t just do this at Sauble Beach (though it is pretty phenomenal there).  People do it everywhere, by oceans, lakes, mountains, even on cruise ships.  People stop and just watch, sometimes in silence, gazing at the sight.

The thing that is different, the thing that keeps people coming back each night is the sky.  On a clear night with no clouds, the sky is colourful.  But when you add a little bit of cloud – wow! – the sun does an amazing job of painting the sky in incredible colours and shades.  It’s like there’s a new canvas every night.

I personally have probably over a hundred pictures of sunsets at Sauble Beach.  I’ll take several every time because the colours, and the painting created on the canvas of the sky, changes moment by moment.  Even though there is a new picture every night, for some reason I, and many others, feel the need to capture the one we’re looking at so we can view it again and again.

Some people don’t care about capturing it.  They just take it in, are fascinated by the sky and then satisfied that it will be different and just as spectacular the next night.  Some people dream as they stare at it, while others get all romantic and want to hold hands (Lily).  Some linger and others turn and walk away, occasionally looking over their shoulder towards the sky and horizon.

Here’s the thing:  Every day we have opportunities to gaze upon what God has created, and appreciate it, think about it, dwell on it and acknowledge where it came from.  But how often do we take a moment to go beyond the beauty that we see to give a nod to God for it, to respond to Him for the million dollar painting before our eyes?  After all, the painter is the one with all the talent; the painting is just his creation.  I want to be a little more responsive to God and His paintings from now on.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: What grabs your attention, causing you to acknowledge God’s creativity in the world?  Leave your comment below.