get sandy

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I remember the first time I camped out on the beach. It was with a few college friends, and we set up right next to the dunes down on the west end of Galveston somewhere. I grew up going to the beach with my family for vacation, but we always stayed in our beach house. That meant we could always shower off, and have a good clean dinner, and sleep in relatively un-sandy beds.

Camping on the beach is a different story. We had a good day playing in the surf and we even kept the sand out of most of our food for dinner, but
when it was bed-time, it was impossible to keep sand out of the tents. It seemed like as we tried to brush the sand off our feet, or shake out a sleeping bag, more sand would sneak in on the wind.

In the end, I had to make a decision to just be sandy and be okay with that. Then the sand didn't really bother me as much as it did when I was trying to stay un-sandy.

Recently, after church, I went down to the beach to play with Eli. My sister and a niece and nephew were visiting, and they were all down there with Laura already. I was a little tired (I get up early to work on my sermons) so when I got down there, I piled up some sand for a pillow and laid right down on my stomach and just rested for a few minutes. Then I helped build a sand castle, and I was soon covered in sand. Had I tried not to get sandy, it would have been a miserable experience,
but I decided to just get sandy, and then I was really at the beach.

I've thought about that camping trip, and recent sandy-beach trips as a metaphor for relationships. Specifically, for relationships in Christian community. Perhaps in any relationship we present a version of ourselves with no sand; we present a persona that may represent a safety zone early on in relationships. But to keep up a persona is to present an unreal version of ourselves.

Getting sandy, to me, represents being willing to be our true selves to one another, to decide not to resist the gritty nature that is who God has made us to be. Murray and Sarah Powell would remind me that it is our "flaws" that make us unique (give them a bushel of oranges and they can tell you more about that.) Donald Schell would remind me that it is better to preach what you practice than to try to practice what you preach. People who present themselves flawless are not real people. Flawed people are unique people; people who are not ashamed of who God has made them to be. They have character.

Living life pretending not to be blessed with flaws is not really living life; Going to the beach without getting sandy, is not really going to the beach.

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