Day 3: Can You Ever Have Too Much?

"You can never have too much beach."

I came across this quote when I was looking for quotes about the beach.  I don't know if I agree with it though. 

I was telling someone this past week that if I had chosen a different path for my life it might have ended up with me having a small cottage by the beach somewhere where I could teach during the day and come home to listening to the waves while grading papers and reading books. The thing wrong that I see in my own scenario is a lack of community.  

I like the rythmn of the beach.  I like the heat of the sand and the smell of saltwater.  I don't really like cold beaches, but since moving to Idaho I'll take the cold beaches of Oregon and Washington over no beaches. 

Here's what I read in Ecclesiastes: “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 NIV)

I don't know if I lived my life at the beach all the time if my life would be meaningless, but I do know that is not where God has me right now.  So for today I'll chose to be content and enter into community even when my soul is tired and longs for the rhythm of the beach.  God has me in this community right here right now.

“A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 NIV)

P.S. Sundays I'll be writing about the beach.