a thought from my beach chair...

I love my beach chair.

I brought it up when I moved up from California, and I am so glad I did, because I haven't seen one exactly like it here. I love its low profile, its high back, and the fact that it reclines at four places, and can go all the way back so I can lay flat on my back if I want, I but never do because I am always watching kids, and being flat on my back is not conducive to such a thing.

Anyways, I was sitting today on my beach chair at a very low tide with the kids. I sat reclined at the first stop that the armrest has, as I watched Candan take his first ride on his new skim board that he got for his tenth birthday a couple weeks ago. I watched as Keelin jumped over the little waves that crashed on the shore.

We built sandcastles around my beach chair, too, for a little break from all the playing in the water.

I had a moment in that beach chair today when I was thinking about this season that we're in-- summer, and how it seems, according to the displays in the stores, that things are changing. Fall is coming. I saw it on TV, too. Preseason football. Sadly, summer won't last much longer!

I thought about how sitting in my cute new suit on the beach in my chair is appropriate, in this part of the world, anyway, in the summertime. How weird would it be to sit on the beach in November, or January, or even April? But yet, it was totally appropriate today. Today was made for sitting on a beach.

The Bible says that there is a season for everything under heaven.

²A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
³A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
⁴A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
⁵A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
⁶A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
⁷A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
⁸A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace. ~Ecclesiastes 3:2-8

I was thinking of how in certain seasons, we try too hard on our own strength to be a certain way about something, even though the proper act is something completely different, because it's somehow expected. Do we have pressure to put on a brave face, even though tears are completely warranted in a situation? Do we have pressure to be happy when the circumstances call for sadness? Do we answer "fine" when it's not at all "fine"?

There are times when God comforts us through something where we have the peace that passes all understanding. There are times when it's God's strength that's pulling us through a seemingly impossible season. But that's not what I am talking about. What I mean is when we totally feel one way and act another. When we try to look the part. And, you know what that feels like?

Like sitting in beach chair in January.

God's word says that it's okay to cry when we need to. Jesus wept. It's okay to be sad about losing someone or something. It's okay to laugh. There is a season for everything under heaven. When it's August, play on the beach! When it's January, carry an umbrella. It's okay. Today was made for it.

The good thing about seasons, is that they're always changing. And there's good things to look forward to. Even the end of summer brings football in the fall. :)

Weeping may last for a night, but Your joy comes in the morning....You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, that my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever. --Psalm 30:5b, 11-12