All play and no work makes Johnny …

Most of us have a favorite place to “just be.”

Some prefer to be wrapped in a blanket on a cushy couch, by a blazing fire on a rainy day.

Others love the view and sounds from outdoors on a deck.

There are some who revel in the dryness, stillness, and surprising colors of the desert.

Still others prefer the crisp, cool sharpness of mountain air amid towering pines.

For me, it’s the beach. Any beach. Let me watch the water, hear the crash of the waves, and it feels as if I’m in the presence of God Himself. The world melts away and peace pervades me.

It’s a blessing when we have those moments to just “be.”

But simply “being” isn’t what God has created us for.

From the start of this world, with the first two human beings, God designed us for relationship, for interaction, for socialization, for work. His creative work wasn’t meant to be static.

That includes you and me.

Yet we consistently strive against this design of God’s by constantly looking for and longing for just a chance to “be.” We curse Monday mornings and praise Friday afternoons in celebration of pursuing “being.” By pitting our minds against our activities and our work in desire for “being,” we miss possibilities and blessings that come in all the stuff we’re enabled by God to “do.”

“Doing” is a big part of living. There is an aspect of fulfillment in what we do when it flows from being involved in this world the way God designed for us. But “doing” is not the source of our fulfillment, that comes from “being” in relationship with God.

Do you see the cycle?

God wants us to be fulfilled in who He made us to be, in relationship to Him first, and then to others. Then He designed for us to deepen and enrich our “being” with plenty of opportunity for “doing.” And all that “doing” generates a need to have times simply for “being.” It’s a rewarding cycle.

Especially if it includes a beach.

Scotty