Sacred Retreats

I’m heading up to Bellingham for a little weekend getaway today. Lili and Stacey asked me to join their excursion, and I’m really looking forward to it. Sometimes you just need to get away from your usual surroundings to really appreciate them. (And I’m excited about the group that is going. The last time I headed north, the car was full of four girls who were getting rather irritated by the time we were almost home. I’m great friends with all who were there; it was just too much time, too close of quarters. Lil, Stace, and I are all pretty laid back, so this should be really enjoyable.)

Long car trips and getting away from your usual surroundings always remind me of Cannon Beach, Oregon. I lived in CB for a year while going to school there, and it is the perfect getaway for a retreat with God. Small town, slow pace, and my favorite beach on the West Coast (not to mention the specialty chocolate shop where I was first introduced to chocolate covered gummy bears. Don’t judge them until you’ve tried them – they are perfect combination of gummy-goodness and sweet chocolate). The Bible school I attended was really small (120 students), but it was a great year of focusing in and connecting with God and being surrounded by those who were doing the same.

I think because of that year, beaches will always be synonymous with communion with God for me. Watching the wave’s crash upon the shore, smelling the scent of salt as the wind blows, and feeling the tiny grains of sand sifting through my fingers are a sacred thing for me. During that year, God really spoke the message of Psalm 139 into my heart – He has ordained each of my days and knows every detail of me. He knows the desires of my heart; he placed them there after all.
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Psalm 139

1 O LORD , you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways. 4
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD .

5 You hem me in-behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.

19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD ,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
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Be blessed with the knowledge that He knows all of your concerns and will guide you as you lean on Him for his direction.