"Stop Jabbering!"

I came home from my restful week at Sabbath by the Sea rested and renewed.  I can't really express how much the time meant to me other than to say, "I'd go again and you should go, too!"

DH and I were needing some time alone with God and some time together with God.  We got both.  And then some. 

I am not sure if I have ever walked on the beach alone before.  Not just alone but totally by myself!  At first I kept waiting for someone to join me.  Someone I could see, if only from a distance.  Guess God was teaching me a lesson in that, too... I don't need others.  I need Him.  I need to stop looking around, being distracted by what others are doing.  I need to keep my eyes on Him and not care or notice if there is (or isn't) another body way down the coast line...

 

 Looking one way, then the other, I don't see another human.

 

I drew a circle in the sand around me and invited Christ to be present with me.
I imagined God's loving protection and care being the circle. 
"May I know how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ..."
Ephesians 3:18

 

I thought of the prayer of Saint Patrick:

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

 

 

I was alone with God for a long time on the sandy shore.

I can say we really had a conversation - meaning I

shut up long enough to listen.

What He said to me won't make any cute little book but it will

reside inside me forever:

 

 

"How dare you stand on my shore and look at my ocean

and wonder if I can handle you...

and all of your issues."  God

 

It's pretty much what I needed to hear. 

Glad I stopped jabbering long enough to hear it.

 

#SabbathbytheSea2014