Swinging by the Seaside

As I sit in my living room in England (hello!), I’m realizing how excited I am to write this blog. I’ve enjoyed writing every blog I’ve written, but this one feels special. So many fun and wonderful things have happened over the past two and a half months, but this past week was filled with some of the best experiences I’ve had so far.

 It started in Oxford last weekend. Oxford is a little over two hours from where we live, so we made a little day trip down there. Now, in order to fully understand how ridiculously excited I was to go to Oxford, you have to know how inspirational C. S. Lewis has been to me. Believe it or not, when I was a pre-teen I didn’t think I loved reading. Sure, I could read well, but I didn’t read often. My mom bought me The Magician’s Nephew when I was around twelve and had me read it for school. I really didn’t want to read the book. But I’ll never forget reading it. I sat up in my room in suspense as Digory and Polly journeyed through the rafters that joined their houses. In short, The Chronicles of Narnia sparked my love for reading. Well, I guess Go Dog Go and Green Eggs and Ham and various other books helped along the way because I do remember being very excited and proud of myself when I learned to read, but C. S. Lewis’ writing really pushed me forward. I read Mere Christianity at the age of thirteen if that tells you anything.

Moving on. When we were in Oxford, we went to The Eagle and Child, which is the pub C. S. Lewis, Tolkien, and their writing group called the Inklings went frequently. It was a beautiful place full of character and drawings and paintings in tribute to Tolkien and Lewis. After an amazing lunch there (I had pulled pork. It was top notch.), we ventured over to The Kilns, where Lewis spent about thirty or so years of his life. The area has changed a lot since he lived there. What used to be farmland is now full of homes, and his is tucked away in the back. The home has a beautiful, whimsical garden and bright windows with beautiful views. The furniture isn’t the same that was in the home when he was there, but it as made to look as close to the original as possible.

It was a dream come true for me to see both of these places. I’ve always wanted to see where he lived and the streets he walked down. Near his home is a little pond, and I could just imagine him sitting back there writing or thinking. I don’t have many people I would really love to meet, but if he were alive, he’d definitely be one of them. After we left The Kilns, we walked around Oxford and saw a few of the universities around there, had marvelous chocolate chip cookies, bought a scarf (or two), and just took in the city.

I’ve come to realize one of the main things I love about British culture and society is their city centers. I love the shops in old buildings and streets in cobblestone that automobiles aren’t allowed to travel down. Pretty much every city center I’ve been to in the UK even has a market area where you can buy meat and fruit and vegetables and shop for all sorts of things and buy food from vendors (like the cookie place). That’s something we need to bring to the US. I don’t know what it is about it that I love so much. The architecture, the atmosphere, being able to walk to and fro from little shop to shop. It’s just class, as my friends in Northern Ireland would say.

Going to Oxford fulfilled a little dream of mine. I’m beginning to realize more and more every day how God cares about even our little dreams. I think every dream has a purpose, if even to make us happy or giddy or joyful. I think he likes to see us like that. After all, he is our father, and what father wouldn’t want to see their child giddy?

Where do I even begin with Northern Ireland? I guess I’ll start with why we went. I hadn’t met our boss yet and he was going to be there, so he asked us to come, and then one of our partners in Northern Ireland asked if we could come and film a video for them for a youth event they have coming up. This was the first time I’ve really gotten to help out with filming, and it was a blast. I was put on sound duty, so I made sure the sound was right and listened intently, making sure there were no obtrusive background noises. I really enjoyed it. It was super fun finding cool places around Belfast to film. We filmed in the botanic gardens, at Queens University, Victoria Square, a soccer stadium, and City Hall. We were in city call so late they had to unlock the doors to let us out, and we saw the mayor. Pretty cool if you ask me.

On our final day, we walked up the street to Starbucks, where I got a fabulous chai latte. The last one I’d gotten tasted pretty bad, so I asked God for it to be a really good one. And it truly was. Guys, he really cares about everything, even our favorite drink being delicious. Anyway, our last day was pretty much a free day. We decided to travel up to the north coast. We went to Carrick-a-Rede, which is a rope bridge suspended 100 feet in the air. It was absolutely gorgeous and the team and I had a great time wandering around there and taking some great photos. After the rope bridge, we journeyed over to Giant’s Causeway. It was my second time there, but it’s still breathtakingly beautiful. I’m hoping to write a poem about it sometime soon.

As beautiful as the causeway and the rope bridge were, my favorite part of this trip was simple, but so full of joy. We drove along the coast and saw a park by the seaside, so we just had to stop. The moment was too perfect. The four of us jumped out of the car like a bunch of little kids let out at recess and ran for the swings. I felt such joy while swinging. How often do you get to say you’ve swung by the seaside in Northern Ireland? I couldn’t quite explain the joy and freedom I felt. I can only say that I know it was God showing me his love in a beautiful way.

The whole trip was absolutely amazing. The team grew so much closer. We had so many laughs and jokes it is ridiculous and hard to remember them all. It’s so amazing how God knows what personalities work well together. He is so intricate in every single detail. I’ll never stopped being amazed and overwhelmed by him and his love. He cares about literally everything in our lives.

Sometimes I sit back and I’m amazed that I’m even here. A few weeks ago we were talking about dreams and what our dreams are, and I can honestly say I’m living one of my dreams right now: my biggest dream to date. It’s been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember to go to England and travel and do something I love that has a purpose. It seems so surreal at times. I cannot say enough how God cares about everything in our lives. We went to Northern Ireland to work, granted the work was fun, but it was still work. Amidst the work though, we built stronger relationships with one another and had a laugh or two or a thousand. We swung by the seaside for the pure joy and fun of it, and God was in the midst of all of it. We saw his beautiful creation, and he’s in it. We went to Oxford just to get away on a Saturday and see some sights, but God was in the midst of that too. 

I can’t explain how mind boggling that is to me. It’s something I’ve always known, but lately it has been so overwhelming. I love how we can go deeper and deeper into God’s love, joy, peace, and comfort our entire lives and still never fathom him completely. The other night I sat down and started reading some Psalms. Sometimes I like to read them out loud because it helps me focus and take them in more. If you haven’t tried it before, I definitely think you should. The Psalms I read talked about how big God is. Here’s a bit of one that really stuck out to me.

May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works—he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the Lord.Pslam 104:31-34

He’s just so magnificent. The earth trembles. The mountains smoke. The second part is my desire. He’s so good to me. He’s beyond good to me. He holds everything together, yet he loves me, and I want to make him happy like he makes me happy.

Funny enough, or not really because God knows what he’s doing, the video we filmed is for a youth event called Limitless. And as they say in the video, God really is limitless. He doesn’t have any boundaries. We say it all the time, but he really does love us, and he wants to show it to us. We just have to be willing to sit and listen to him. When we look at the world around us, we cannot deny that he is in creation and everything good. I’ll never forget the moment of swinging by the seaside in Northern Ireland. It felt so pure and free and so full of joy. I hope you'll allow God to show his love to you today, whether it is a good day or a bad day.