Sunscreen Sunburns

My best friend at the beach is sunscreen. Not just any sunscreen, but the 50 SPF with Zinc. The kind that you have to rub in for hours to get it to blend in and nit make you look like a beach bum albino. Not because the sun and I don't get along, we do. I love the sun, being in the sun, and relaxing it in the sun. It's just that as much as I love the sun, God made my skin type special. Special as in the sun loves me so much it burns. This kind of sun-love does indeed hurt. So I lather and rub, and rub, and rub. The first day of vacation is always the test for me, after a long drive and months of anticipation, intend to overdue my time in the sun the first day. So this year I was going to be extra careful and super prepared. In preparation for a few family hours at the beach I began rubbing in sunscreen 30 minutes before heading out. And after I was rubbed and lathered, then rubbed some more I made sure all the kids were adequately sun-blocked.
 The afternoon was great. We played, relaxed, read, listened to music, built sand castles, and had an amazing day at the beach. Later that night my skin felt a little tight on my stomach. Nothing to be too concerned about, I was sure, after all I used protection. What can go wrong when you use protection, right? A few hours later it was obvious. My stomach was as red as the Worship Table paramount on Pentecost Sunday. I was burnt. I rethought my lathering and rubbing routine. I made sure my feet were saturated in sunscreen (just one good time of a foot sunburn at the beach and you make sure you don't do that again). I knew I covered my arms, legs, chest, even my ears in sunscreen. Then I realized, I had only forgotten one place...my stomach. The hours that I had spent in my new beach chair laid back soaking up the rays had not been as pleasant as I had thought. I thought I was protected. I thought the SPF 50 armor was deflecting the fiery flames from Helios with ease. But I was wrong. I was not fully protected. Though most of me was protected there was a small part that I had left open. And that small part was where the enemy attacked.
There is a contemporary worship song that says "be careful little eyes what you see...be careful little feet where you go..." The idea in the song is that we need to be completely covered head to toe with the love and Grace of Jesus to survive this world, and that we need to be careful what we look at at, and where go, as that may be where temptation lies in wait.
Ephesians 6 refers to this as putting on the full armor of God. That may seem a lot different than my sunscreen analogy, but I think they are quite similar. The one area that I left open (uncovered) was the one place I got burnt. The places where we leave open in our lives are the places where we will get burnt. Maybe it is the seemingly innocent  relationship with a co-worker, the practice at work that your boss doesn't know about, or the time you spend doing something that you wouldn't want your spouse, children, or church friends to know about, the thoughts we think about others. These are the places you will get burnt. These are unprotected places.
My prayer for us today is that we allow the Holy Spirit to show us this places now.
 Show us the places where we tend to be weak.
Show us the areas where we are exposed, open, and vulnerable to attack.
Show us now before we get burnt.
 And give us the strength to let the light of Jesus burn away those dark places with His Love and forgiveness.
Grace&Peace!

Broken beach chair

There is no better time to start a blog than while on vacation. The peacful serenity. The absence of meetings and deadlines. A time to relax and refresh and refocus. So that is what I am doing and that is where I am. On vacation at oak island, nc. And finally getting around to joining this blogging community. Today is the first full day of vacation, so no better day to start. This morning I set out for the beach. I planned on relaxing in my favorite beach chair with my beautiful wife by my side, watching the kids play in the sand and the ocean, and soak in the magnificence of God's creation in one of my favorite spots. The fact that my beach chair is my favorite does require further details, I suppose. You see, it's my favorite chair not only at the beach, but also back home in Tennessee. After last year's beach trip I set my favorite beach chair up on my back deck. And I left it there. I sat in that chair every day that was warm and/or sunny since last June. But I also left my favorite beach chair to the Tennessee weather. The sun, the rain, the hail, the wind, the snow. All these things filled my chair when I was not the one filling it. And so last week I dusted it off, brushed away a few cob webs and bird poop, and brought it to the beach. When I set my favorite beach chair up in the sand it looked about the same, maybe a little older and a little worse for wear, but that's expected with anything  even favorite beach chairs. When I sat in it it felt about the same, for a couple of minutes. When I shifted my weight to look at a hermit crab that my wife saw emerging from the sand it felt different, then the seat ripped. It more than ripped, it tore completely in two. As my derriere hit the sand and my legs straddled the seat support bar I realized a couple of things. First I realized maybe I needed to drop a a few pounds and that in addition to starting blogging this vacation maybe starting an exercise routine would be a good idea. I also realized how silly I looked. Feet stuck up in the air, butt in the sand, looking to see if anyone saw this happen. But more than that I think God used this to show me a lesson. If I had put my favorite beach chair in the garage with all the other beach items and toys, including the other beach chairs, it would have been fine. It would have held me securely and comfortably and allowed me to enjoy family time on the beach. But I hadn't done that. I had exposed my favorite chair to the unnatural elements that it was never designed to endure for long periods of time, and then when I needed it most it broke. We all will face the harsh elements of different seasons, but we were not designed to weather them continuously. My chair looked ok, but it wasn't. The elements had taken a toll on the seam that held the fabric to the chair frame. Such a little thing, the seam. Almost insignificant. But the seam has a very important purpose. And when it broke its purpose was evident. Sometimes life seems to work on our frame, and our fabric. But the seam that holds us together is our faith in Jesus. That seam must be cared for and nurtured. Not because it is weak, far from it! But because I am weak. I pray that the seams of our lives, our faith, discipleship, love, compassion, trust, devotion, and worship stay strong and secure during the bad weather of life, and may those seams uphold us comfortably to enjoy the beach days of life. Grace&Peace!