I saw the most wonderful thing today. My heart is still glowing many hours after I witnessed what I saw. I spoke and ministered last night at our church in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and I stayed an extra day today just to do some relaxing (look and listen to the ocean and hit a few golf balls). While sitting on the balcony of my hotel room around 1 o’clock (spending time with the Lord and looking out at the ocean, basking in the wonderful sound of the waves rolling in), I noticed there was one umbrella set-up out near the ocean. It was one of those set ups done by a professional group that the hotels works with. There was one big blue umbrella with one blue chair on either side. I’m on the fifth floor, and so it was far enough away from me to not be able to tell if there was one person under the umbrella or two. After sitting out there for about an hour and a half, I noticed that there was one elderly lady who stood up from her chair. She was just standing still, almost as if she was waiting for someone. I was able to see that she had a walking cane with four pedestals on the bottom. At some point, she started to move toward the hotel. It was obvious that she was very restricted and could barely walk. She was just taking very limited baby steps until finally, a truck pulled up on the beach, and someone got out to gather up the umbrella and chairs while another young woman went to help the handicapped lady walk across the sand. I’m sure all of you have walked from the oceans edge back to a wooden boardwalk that led to your hotel. It’s not an easy thing, even for a healthy person, to walk laboriously through the sand. Even with the young woman’s aid, this lady could just take tiny little steps, and it took her about thirty minutes or more just to get close to the wooden steps that led to the walkway that led back by the swimming pool to finally reach the inside of the hotel. When she got about 10 feet from the first step, she must’ve told the young woman that she didn’t need her help anymore and she could do the rest of the way by herself, for the young woman left her standing there and got in the truck with her fellow worker and drove off. As slowly as she was moving, I was stunned that she wanted to go the rest of the way on her own. Her destination was not much farther away but it took her about thirty more minutes, with occasional stops to rest, to get to finally get there. As I was watching this whole thing unfold I thought, “This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.” I knew that it was the Holy Spirit who had birthed those thoughts in me. I knew I was thinking in union with Christ, looking out at that lady. The symphonic voice of the Lord in me was like the sound of many waters joyfully celebrating the beauty and the truth of what I was watching. It was a woman who obviously loved the ocean and had likely spent many years sitting in a chair like that under an umbrella, looking out at the sea, so near to the wonderful roar coming from the waves. Even though what it took for her to get down there to that chair and what it took to get back to the hotel was so tedious, difficult, and I’d imagine painful at some level, I think her heart was full of joy and satisfaction. It was quite a remarkable site, and the thing that blew me away was the idea that she was not going to let anything, no matter how hard and uncomfortable it might be or even how embarrassing it might be, to keep her from doing what her heart so loved to do. She wanted to sit close to the ocean again, and nothing was going to keep her from it. Hope deferred can make the heart grow sick, and this dear lady with such a powerful testimony of not allowing anything to defer her hope. Through her journey, it was like the Lord was speaking to me about embracing our life in Christ and not allowing anything, no matter how restrictive or difficult to keep us from daily “fighting the good fight of faith and TAKING HOLD of the eternal life (our participation in the life of God through Christ)” – 1 Timothy 6:12. It is a beautiful thing when we don’t allow the hardships and pain of this fallen world, spiritual warfare, restrictions, or age to keep us from enjoying Him and proclaiming the excellencies of Him in all places and at all times. I recently bought a motorcycle, and when people question my sanity in light of the fact that I just turned 71, my response is always, “What did you want me to do; wait until I was 75.” Never stop going after “the more,” for there is always more to experience and manifest in Christ. Though things around us change in this life, if you are a Christian, there is one thing that never changes, and that is the fact that you are “in Christ,” so celebrate life with all of your heart. It brings great pleasure to your heavenly Father.
