Monday, May 27, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
The kingdom and the power and the glory
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us a new birth to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Tomorrow we’ll head for the Texas Gulf Coast to Port Aransas, hit by hurricanes more than once but rebuilt each time into a yet more colorful, welcoming coastal village.
Five hundred years ago the Karankawa Indians welcomed Spanish explorers, but then nearly became extinct after disease and genocidal attacks by whites into the twentieth century. Originally from the Caribbean (Caribs), these Indians struggled with colonists over the land they had lived on for centuries. Stephen Austin and his father Moses eventually rallied their colonists against the Karankawa. Less than a hundred years later the Karankawa tribe “went extinct as a distinct tribe.”
Now for a little while you must suffer through various trials, so the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even when tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Of course this history is largely unknown to the travelers and fisherman, swimmers and surfers that come to Port Aransas. We’ll eat ice cream, build sand castles, and fish from a couple of fine piers that jut out into the salt water. We’ll make breakfasts, lunch and dinners for each other. Ten of us will enjoy the sunshine, take long naps, swim in the neighborhood pool, and play on the beach. The weather is expected to be in the mid-80’s, a far cry from the 100 degree temperatures that Texas usually experiences later in the summer.
Since my cataract removal included the mounting of new lenses in both my eyes, I have to keep water out of my eyes for another few weeks, and sand too, of course, because rubbing my eyes is not good before the lenses have a few weeks to settle in. So I’ll probably do more reading than sand castling.
Rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy. Attain the goal of faith, the salvation of your soul.
Last year Marc and I walked along the beach into and through a wake/funeral, during which friends spread ashes over the waves. Tears fell. The waves burst on the shore, and the sun set. We prayed for the lost one and for the folks who loved him. Loved her.
Your inheritance has been kept, imperishable, undefiled and unfading, in heaven for you.
I wonder what we’ll encounter this year, as we walk along the edges of the surf.
Although you have not seen him, you love him.
Reading Peter’s words to God’s elect – those scattered exiles in Asia who had been and would be persecuted and killed for their faith – changes the feel of my vacation. I’m more appreciative. I am also aware of how entitled I am. Even when we return to the rest of our lives, we will face little of what Peter’s friends were facing. None of us, for example, will be crucified upside down.
Even though you do not see him now, yet you believe in him.
Spiritual “indifference” means that neither persecution nor pleasure matter as much as they used to. I’m getting there. Ram Dass called his book Be Here Now. I’m getting there. Eckart Tolle wrote The Power of Now. History rings in my ears, and I listen for the Karankawa drums. I half expect an unexpected weather advisory that predicts 125 mph hurricane winds and a minor tsunami in the middle of the night.
And there will be ice cream.
And we will experience the power of NOW and FOREVER, Amen.
1 Peter 1, Psalm 111, 2 Corinthians 8, Mark 10)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
#
