Sleepless Meditation

Hopelessly exhausted. That's how I'm feeling right about now. It's 1:30 AM...and I. CANNOT. SLEEP.

I have been having trouble sleeping for the past several nights. I can feel that I'm tired, but whatever I do, I can't get myself to fall asleep. And when I do, I only sleep for a few hours, and then wake up again. It's really just starting to get frustrating at this point.

After about four hours of trying to fall asleep, I have decided to give up for a little while and write a blog post. I just have so many thoughts on my mind, and I just need to get my mind off of those thoughts because I know that they are contributing to my temporary insomnia.

So, as many of you know, I went to the beach this past weekend with some friends. This can be summed up in just a few sentences. Huge waves are pretty much the funnest thing I have ever experienced. I love friends. I have beads in my hair. Good devotionals are good for the soul. I can actually sleep at the beach. Sometimes people are grumpy.

I'm gonna expand on those last three.

(1) Good devotionals are good for the soul - at lunch and dinner we would have a devotional and discuss it with each other. This was really good fellowship. Even better, on Sunday we watched a video called Walk as Jesus Walked. It pretty much walks you through the history of the Jews. Something that really stood out to me in the video: Timothy was a mamzer, which is something that I was unaware of before. Because he was an illegitimate child, he was not allowed to participate in the religious practices of the Jews, including circumcision.  He was a complete outcast. Until Paul came along. Even though Timothy was completely neglected in his own city of Lystra, Paul took him in with open arms and refers to Timothy as his son. Does this story sound familiar? We were outcasts. Witheld by sin. Until Jesus came along and died for us. He took us in with open arms and refers to us as His children. Paul's letter to Timothy makes so much more sense to me now. The way Paul says, "Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. - 1 Timothy 4:12. To sum it up, the video was very thought provoking. I strongly recommend it.

(2) I can actually sleep at the beach - I sleep so well at the beach. Every single time I go. It must be the swimming and staying out all day in the sun everyday, but I always have the best sleeps en la playa.

(3) Sometimes people are grumpy - And by people I mean the driver of the boat when we went on La Bestia. This ride is one of the funnest things ever invented. Unfortunately, with our luck, when we first started going, the dang thing tipped over and we all fell out. Which is definitely not supposed to happen. So, me, naturally thinking that the tipping over was absolutely beyond hilarious, I was laughing. While trying to get back on the boat. Which was equally as funny because I could not get back on. Cue more laughter. Our driver wasn't having it. He just kept saying "No te rías. No te rías." Which, for all you spanish noobs, means "Don't laugh. Don't laugh." Okay, dude. Sorry for laughing at a funny situation. So, after finally getting back on, we start again. Naturally, because the ride is fun, and scary, we scream. Just as we would on any other ride. Can you guess what happened next? "Shhhh. Shhhh," says the man. WE CAN'T EVEN HAVE A GOOD TIME ON A RIDE THAT WAS MEANT FOR A GOOD TIME? NOT TO MENTION A RIDE THAT WE ARE PAYING YOU FOR?
Oh, well. All in all, it was a good experience. I'll just give the man the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was just having a bad day. I mean, hey, life can get the best of all of us sometimes.