The Sea Is His
Venite
Come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before God’s presence with thanksgiving;
and raise to the Lord a shout with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God;
you are great above all gods.
In your hand are the caverns of the earth;
and the heights of the hills are yours also.
The sea is yours, for you made it,
and your hands have molded the dry land.
Come, let us bow down and bend the knee,
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For you are our God,
and we are the people of your pasture, and the sheep of your hand.
O that today we would hearken to your voice!
—Psalm 95:1-7.
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
He hurries in late with coffee in one hand and keys in another. “Sorry about being late, trying to do too much, too much going on.” I light our candle as a prayer to the Holy Spirit to be present at our meeting. We sit in silence until his breathing becomes less labored. “When I am so busy, my world becomes all about me. I do not feel God’s presence. I wish I knew how to slow down my life and better hear God working in my life,” he finally says.
I tell him I know exactly what he is talking about. I let him know it can be different and tell him this story.
On our last visit to the Gulf of Mexico, my husband and I rose early whenever possible, sitting out on our balcony and waiting in the dark for the sun to rise. Usually the sun creeps up, a little pink, a little lighter, and then with a huge crash of light like the cymbals and tympani at the conclusion of a symphony. On a few days we become real beach bums, just sitting or looking out on the changing sea, waiting for the early morning fishermen: the osprey, the fishing boats, the surf fishermen with their accompanying blue heron waiting for the catch of the day. Soon come the dolphins and the pelicans, swimming and flying and diving back and forth along the shoreline. We take in a world greater than that of our own making.
The Venite from Morning Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer speaks to what happens more than we can express. Paul Tillich, one of our most famous theologians and philosophers, who spent his lifetime trying to understand God, came and sat by the ocean for the very first time and wept uncontrollably as he experienced the vastness of God in the sea—more than he had ever imagined. Sitting by a body of water and observing new life as it emerges each day from under and above the sea, marveling at such a vast world of wonder can be more healing than drugs.
Is it possible for you to start the day, or stop during the day to sit by a body of water? For only a half hour, maybe during lunch or after dinner, stop and allow the rhythm of life on the river or the sea or the lake to heal you.
It may be harder for us to go to the sea presently, unless we live by the sea. Instead, we can bring up memories of what it was like. Perhaps now we also will be encouraged to make more memories the next time we are there.
Joanna joannaseibert.com
Bless you for supporting the ministry of our church and conference center, Camp Mitchell, on top of Petit Jean Mountain, by buying this book in the daily series of writings for the liturgical year, A Daily Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter. If you like this book, could you take a brief moment to write a recommendation on its page on Amazon? More thank-you’s than I can say!!!
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.