“Your Message pleases me and provides wise counsel." ~ Psalms 119:24
The beach was just what Kai
needed. He’d been experiencing one of those bleak periods that many of us
encounter from time to time – a speedbump on life’s dragstrip when everything
goes stale and flat, energy wanes, and enthusiasm dies. The effect on his work
was deafening.
Every morning he’d wake up clenching his teeth and mutter:
“Today my life will take on some of its old meaning. You’ve got to break
through this thing. You’ve got to!”
Peaceful in its own way, it was a sanctuary of sorts – away
from work, coworkers, and email. Kai thought of his cell phone, sitting on the
coffee table at home. Switching off for a day would do him the world of good,
he imagined.
Kai closed his eyes and drew in a lung full of the cool
ocean breeze. Kai studied an endless sea, lost in the rhythmic percussion of
waves on sand. Immersed in the sweetness of children’s laughter, he sought God's
whisper. Today was a day for healing, for allowing time to slow and reassure.
As the day wore on and with the patience of a sloth, the sun’s
light yawned toward eventide. Soon the sun began to vanish; time to bid this
beautiful day goodnight. He stood to collect his things and instantly panicked.
Earlier in the day he buried his wallet in the sand before
he entered the water to deter potential thieves. Now he couldn’t remember where;
he’d moved his towel at least twice that day.
There, kicking around the sand in Clearwater Beach for about
a half hour with his cellphone flashlight, he looked a bit crazy.
The man offered to trace Kai’s
earlier paths with his metal detector, explaining that the device might be able
to detect metal in a debit card. So, they walked the beach, but no luck.
The gentleman would probably have
searched all night had Kai not ended the search at about midnight. It was one
of the kindest and most selfless acts Kai had ever encountered.
His anxiety raging back, he
returned to his car, upset with himself at first for losing his wallet. But
he’d found something worth far more. Kai saw a refreshing side of humanity; one
different from all the fear in the world routinely reported about. It gave Kai a
glimmer of hope, a reminder that pure, unselfish, kindness still exists!
Sometimes we get caught thinking
so much about ourselves and our own problems that we stop listening to God’s
gentle counsel. For there's grace in every bad situation thrown at us.
