Contemplative Christian » Nature http://contemplativechristian.com Grace and Presence in Prayer Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:19:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Coastal Reflections http://contemplativechristian.com/coastal-reflections/ http://contemplativechristian.com/coastal-reflections/#comments Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:32:25 +0000 admin http://contemplativechristian.com/?p=1 In preparing to begin this blog, I’ve spent some time reading through my journal, which I began writing as my prayer life began to unfold. I found a few entries I wrote on a trip to the beach in late summer…and they seemed timely, with winter tightening its grip on the Pacific Northwest, and on me.  Here is one:

A weekend at the beach – a wonderful change of pace.  It’s much easier to slow the mind at the coast – away from the hum of ordinary life – where the sound of breaking waves gives rise to different perspectives.  The vastness of the sea is remarkable, hard to wrap the head around from such a small point on one small coastline…one little man on a balcony, and most of the planet covered by this expanse.

So much larger is God – like the sea, I can dive into Him, become lost in Him…and yet unlike the sea, my living depends precisely on becoming lost – to be cast adrift on currents beyond my comprehension, in the endlessly wonderful vastness of God.

This morning I had the thought: the gulls do not ask themselves, “who am I?”.  They just are.  Just as God is.  Perhaps my goal is to simply be – as the gull is – in Him.

Psalm 36 again: ‘Lord you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your love!’

To be lost in Love, which preserves and sustains all things.  Oh Lord, may I be less and less attached to the shoreline…

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