I woke up alone in my king size bed in Ocean City, New Jersey, last Monday. It was the last day at the beach with my girlfriends and it was raining. I opened the door to the balcony and crawled back under the warm blankets.
I love the sound of birds singing their morning greeting. I love the sound of rain dripping on various objects. A rain drop hitting a tin roof makes a different sound than a rain drop hitting concrete or plastic chairs. How pleasant the symphony of rain.
And then, in the distance, I heard the beep, beep, beep of a large vehicle backing up. All day and all night and all day and all night for as long as we've been here the crews have been working to build up the beach after Hurricane Sandy's destruction. Large machinery out in the ocean has been sucking up sand and piping it back to the beach. Sand and salt water is then spewed out in big wet sprays on the bare beach. The water runs back to the ocean and a big crane-like shovel scoops up the sand and swings around and plops the sand on the section of the beach they are restoring. Hours and hours of man-power and machine power are at work to prepare for summer guests to have a sandy place to lay their beach towels, get a tan, and read a novel.
I decided to focus on the sound of the birds singing and amazingly, the birds singing became louder than the other noises.The beeping died down. As soon as I stopped focusing on the birds' song, the beeping became annoying louder.Then I focused on the musical rain, and again, the beeping faded in the distance.
But finally, its' insistence broke through my resolve to listen to the beauty of early morning and I got up and closed the door on the beeping and retreated back under the covers with a captivating book.
I've been thinking about that Monday morning experiment all week.
The sound I focused on became the sound I heard the loudest.
In life, there is beauty all around us.
In life, there is always a beeping annoyance.
Sometimes, we have to deal with the annoyance before it goes away.
We have to turn off the key on the equipment that is producing the beep.
Sometimes, that beep may never go away, and we have to get up and close the door.
Sometimes, the annoyance of the beep causes us to search out what is causing the beep.
I am talking of our souls now.
The beep is a warning that something is coming our way.
The beep protects us from injury.
Other times, we are far away from the dangerous equipment.
We are under the blankets and want to focus on the beauty of life.
Then, it is okay to ignore the beep.
In light of that thought, several verses come to my mind.
Jesus focused on the joy set before Him when He was facing the cross.
He endured the pain and despised the beeping shame.
He knew that many would come to Him in glory
because of His death and resurrection.
He focused on you. On me.
We were the joy set before Him.
And then, there are Isaiah's wonderful words-
"You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are stayed on You.
Because we trust in You."
It is possible to have perfect peace in the midst
of terrible suffering.
It is possible to have perfect peace in the midst
of the annoying beeps of life.
Deal with the beeps if you have to
and stay focused on the joy that will
soon be yours.
Stay focused on the singing.
The birds.
The raindrops.
Stay focused on Him.
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