Two Gifts from the Sea
Sometimes we have to get away. Something happens when we leave the known for the unknown, even if the unknown is oddly familiar. For over 30 years now, I’ve made my way to the Outer Banks of NC for either a day, a week, or even longer. Even though it is a familiar landscape, I find something brand new waiting for me when I arrive.
Today, as I prepare for yet another visit to my own little piece of paradise, I find myself preparing my heart for what lies ahead. As the waves kiss my toes, I’ve always met God in a very special way. This year I have an even greater expectancy perhaps due to the time we’ve spent in the waiting room. My heart is calmer. My soul is quieter. My ears are ready to hear.
As always, my time at the ocean’s edge reminds me of one of my favorite books, Gift from the Sea, by one of my favorite author’s, Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
Every year, Anne would escape to the ocean, her favorite being Captiva Island off the Gulf Coast of Florida. It is said that she actually penned Gift from the Sea while spending time there.
Today, I am drawing on two beautiful gifts from the sea of her writing that both encourage and empower us to make our time in the waiting room even more intentional.
As we’re learning, time spent in the waiting room playing the waiting game can be extremely frustrating, but if we yield to it, can be extremely fruitful.
Anne learned this and as a result offers us these words on patience and peace.
Patience
“I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness, and the willingness to remain vulnerable.”
― Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea
Peace
“I want first of all… to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can. I want, in fact–to borrow from the language of the saints–to live “in grace” as much of the time as possible. I am not using this term in a strictly theological sense. By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony. I am seeking perhaps what Socrates asked for in the prayer from the Phaedrus when he said, “May the outward and inward man be one.” I would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eye of God.”
― Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea
Will You Please Help Me?
One very clear intention I am setting for my time by the sea this year is to work on something very near and dear to my heart…a book project on contentment. It is based on the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 4:6, “Better one handful with tranquility than two handful with toil and strife.”
I have a few questions I would love for you to answer. I need your help in defining some of the key components of practicing contentment in this oft-crazy culture of ours.
- When you read this scripture, what comes to mind? What speaks loudest to your heart and mind?
- How would you define tranquility? contentment? balance?
- Do you feel as though you are content with your life? Your relationships? Your circumstances? If so, how do you achieve such content? If not, how might you achieve it?
- What would “one handful of tranquility” look like in your life?
Just post your comments here on our blog or if you’d like more privacy, send me an email, janellrardon@gmail.com. Every one who offers a comment will be entered into my Gift from the Sea contest. Expect something very special from my favorite place…the Outer Banks of NC.
1. Having more is rarely worth having if it is accompanied by exhaustion and discord. Contentment is what speaks the loudest to me personally. Something that eluded me for years.
2. Calm, undisturbed. An overall sense of wellness of the soul. Steady. I have learned that all this can be achieved in the midst of chaos … but for me that has come only in Christ.
3. Yes, yes, yes. Through much prayer and seeking. When I write much the word seems so very inadequate for contentment is something I have sought for years but did not come easily at all. Now that it has come (for the most part) I relish it!!
4. Today. I am not saying life is perfect. I have areas I am striving to better, sins I struggle with etc. yet through it all I have a sense of the sovereignty of my Heavenly Father. This ultimately is what brings me to a place of tranquility. I imagine then that one handful of tranquility would look much like today .
Tina,
Thanks so much for taking the time to share your heart. I love your use of the word, “eluded.” In its essence, that means a fail to grasp. When I read that, I gasped, because that has to do with the hand, too, doesn’t it? Wow. Maybe we fail to grasp contentment because our hands try to fill our lives with everything but the sheer simplicity of contentment. You have sparked a fire inside of me…the whole idea of grasping the wrong things…You offer such wisdom in that once we understand the sovereignty of God we can ultimately find our way to the place of tranquility.So rich! Thank you so much dear friend. You are a woman who has walked a deep valley. I respect each and every word.