May God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we really can make a difference in this world, so that we are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our ancestors trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried, and were saved;
in you they trusted, and were not put to shame [Ps. 22.1-5].
I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord [Ps. 27.13-14].
Today we went down to Tulum to visit the ruins of an ancient Mayan port city. Needless to say, this was the most incredible place I have ever been. The ruins are complete with a king’s palace and large temple seated at the top of a cliff. At the beach we were able to swim and snorkel a little in the world’s second largest coral reef. Is this place for real?
We are doing nothing today except for swimming and napping. This morning I enjoyed a Cuban cigar while sitting on a wave breaker. It was difficult to decide to concentrate on the dozen or so wildly colorful fish at my feet or the captivating horizon.
Taking a sabbath forces you reconcile yourself with not doing anything. I am obsessed with defining myself with and by what I do. When these have been removed, it makes me ask, “Who the hell am I?”
Last night we had a power outage so we took to opportunity to step outside and look at the amazing night sky. The stars are incredibly bright down here and the rolling waves provide an apt soundtrack.
Today we went to Paya del Carmen, did a wee bit of shopping and then took the ferry over to the island of Cozumel. My shirt selection today was my Brazil soccer shirt, which proved to be my identification marker as the market sellers all called me by “Hey Brazil, come see my shop,” or “Hey Brazil, let me sell you some Mexican junk back here.”
At Cozumel we rented a Jeep with the instructions, “Don’t drive drunk and don’t let any kids drive.” We did get rained on, but thoroughly enjoyed the drive along the coast.
We have not ventured from far from the condo we are staying in yet, but here is the view from our patio:
Just found this today, even though its been around for over a year. It is a blog written by C.S. Lewis scholars on his life and writings. Looks like interesting stuff.
“Redemption remains a vague rumour, and only those possessed of a true light-hearted folly will dare to abandon everything else in order to pursue it.”
|| John Milbank, Being Reconciled: Ontology and pardon
