Beach Days.

Processed with VSCOcam with a5 presetWith the perks of going to college on the beach you would think I take advantage of this opportunity daily. But I’m sad to say that’s hardly the case. Every morning I wake up and see the vast, beautiful Pacific Ocean, but rarely ever do I take the time to enjoy it. Most of the time I’d rather be napping in my room, or I’m simply just too busy to head on over to the beach. But that wasn’t the case a few weeks ago.

With a sinus infection and all the symptoms of a cold, I still decided to skip class and go to the beach. It was a beautiful San Diego fall day of 80 degrees and clear blue skies. My friends didn’t have class and my class wasn’t going to be all too important, so we all decided to have a beach day. Rather than take a five minute drive to Ocean Beach, we put in an extra fifteen minutes and found ourselves enjoying the soft sand at Coronado beach. For the first time since coming back from Hawaii I took a dip in the water, and I absolutely loved it. I loved floating amongst the waves and splashing around. I loved taking a nap in the sun while hearing the waves crash.

Going to the beach isn’t all too special for me anymore, because after all I spent the whole summer in Hawaii. The part that was particularly a treat for me was going out of my normal routine and just having fun. With the semester more than half way done I’ve gotten into the swing of things. I babysit Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I have church Wednesday nights. I eat dinner with friends on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It’s all part of my schedule. Going to a beach on a Thursday instead of class though wasn’t part of my schedule. I’m a planner, and it’s great. Yet time and time again I’m realizing how I forget to plan in fun time or relaxing time or time to not have a plan.

In my introduction to ministry class we learned a little bit more about sabbath. With what little theology skill I have, I can simply describe sabbath as a time of rest. Rest from work or rest from chores to relax and even spend time with Christ. These past few weeks I’ve been really struggling with giving Christ the time He deserves. I’ve always had difficulty with reading my Bible daily, and it’s something I want to work on. I want to find joy in reading scripture. I want to find peace in prayer. I want to spend time in reflection with Christ daily, but being so comfortable in the schedule I’ve planned for myself makes it difficult. Yes I can plan in time to have devotionals, but personally I don’t think it’s the same. I want to intentionally seek out Christ. I don’t want to write it in my calendar and have a ten minute reminder beforehand. I want to say right now and right here I want to spend time with Christ. So even though the semester is coming to a close and I’m more than comfortable with my weekly schedule, I want to want to go out of my way to do something unplanned.