Shallow Things

"Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." (1 Cor. 10:31)

I had another terribly sleepless night last night.  A vicious storm rolled in right about 2:00 a.m. and it sounded like my roof was gonna come off.  We were all awake and it took a long time for it to subside; long enough for my seven-year-old son, "Spike", to ask, "If this keeps up, do we have to go to school tomorrow?"  Nice try buddy.  Incidentally, Spike doesn't like his real name and decided when he was 5 that he wanted to change it......he wanted me to call him Homer.  I suggested that he changed it to Spike, a real tough guy's name.  Thank God he agreed.

Anyway, I was annoyed about the the lack of sleep,  but also a little bit excited for the next day.  I prayed, "Lord, please let me go back to sleep and give me your energy for tomorrow."  One of my favorite things to do is to explore the beach after a good storm.  The ocean vomits up some really cool stuff.  As soon as I got the kids on their buses, I headed over - practically in my pjs - to see what I could find. There I was, hunched over against the wind and rain, looking for treasure.  It was just me, a crowd of guys surfing, and an old man with a metal detector.  All senses were fully engaged and I felt energetic, alive and frankly, a little nutty.  The guy with the metal detector was clearly missing out, his earphones were drowning out the sound of wind and waves.  I didn't even have equipment but I found something he'd have put in the bag he was carrying; treasure.  In my mind anyway....

Those two shiny things on the left are World War II artillery shells.  In the 1940's they used the ocean as a training ground for anti aircraft operations; our beautiful ocean.  I'm astounded that 70-year-old bullets and the teeth of sea creatures are lying around for a goofball like me.  I felt giddy, grateful and oddly guilty that I was having so much fun when God reminded me:

Even the ocean has a shore.

My favorite devotional in Oswald Chamber's book, My Utmost For His Highest, is the one for November 22nd, entitled, "Shallow and Profound". Here are 2 sections:

"Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound.  We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride."   

                     and....

"To be shallow is not a sign of being sinful, nor is shallowness an indication that there is no depth to your life at all - the ocean has a shore.  Even the shallow things of life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God.  These are all things our Lord did.  He did them as the Son of God, and He said, "A disciple is not above his teacher...."(Matthew 10:24)

I don't feel like Eeyore anymore - I think God knew I needed some shallow - and a quick treasure hunt.  What about you? What are your "shallow things"?

Comments

[Lisa Arnold]

Observing His creation and photographing them. I love taking macros and then zooming in on them on the computer to see what I miss with my own eyes.

Then, I love to bake and watch other people enjoy.

Those things are my "shallow" energy boosters!