Wayne Weekly “Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth”

There I was suspended between heaven and earth. I was precariously balancing the best I could glaring down at the terrain below. My full coffee cup gloating back at me daring me to crash land and spill its contents into the sand.

It was a beautiful morning at Fair Haven Beach State Park. My wife Evie wanted to spend her birthday morning sitting on the beach and relaxing over a thermos of coffee. I made sure to pack my most recent reading material, a book about the life and works of evangelist D.L. Moody. Both Evie and I sank down into our nylon, brightly colored blue fold up chairs. I had set them up hanging their carrying pouches over the back of the chairs.

The water and sky were both deep blue. It was early, 8:30 am, and only a few beach goers had arrived. We peacefully sat, sipping our hot coffee poured from an old Stanley work thermos that we had held on to for years. That thermos had some historic tales to tell for sure. Evie drank out of a commuter cup, I drank out of the thermos top. The waves lapped up gently of the sand and pebble beach. It used to be sandier, but the recent flooding along the Lake Ontario shoreline washed out layers of fine sand, leaving a sandy mixture of stones and pebbles. Still it was nice, still it was a beach.

As I read my book, often reading aloud so Evie could hear some interesting things about Mr. Moody, the surrounding became more alive with people. Families mostly. The laughter of the children mixed well with the sound of the waves as they lapped against the shoreline. All was well on planet earth, for a moment in time.

Evie decided to go down to the water and let her feet catch the waves. We brought a low lying beach chair so I set that up for her at the edge of the shore. There Evie sat, enjoying the water as the shallow waves flowed over her feet and then receded time and time again.

That’s when peace turned to panic. I reached down to pick up my thermos top coffee cup that was somewhat lodged in the sand to keep it from overturning. Before I knew it the legs of my chair sunk down into the sand from the weight of my body. I began to tip over, struggling to get the chair upright. I was either going to go down thus crashing  onto my coffee, somehow manage to get upright, or just bail out forward. I bailed out knowing I had little hope of salvaging my plight.

As Christians, we sometimes find ourselves suspended between Heaven and earth. We want to live on the celestial plane, filled with the Spirit, but the ol’ earthy flesh keeps pulling us downward, and if we don’t bail out, we can crash into the ground below. Knowing that we’ve lost our balance is key to survival. It’s when we become accustomed to the tilt that we can, with little warning, catapult headlong into the unstable sandy soil.

You and I must always monitor our bearings. Spending time in the Word is a good way to keep a level on ourselves. Fellowshipping with mature Christian friends who are grounded in the Rock and not the sand will help stabilize us. And communing with God in meditation and in prayer, helps to keep us upright.

So enjoy life’s beaches…but be careful how you lean.

Some boast in chariots and some in horses, but we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God. They have bowed down and fallen, but we have risen and stood upright.

Psalm 20:7, 8