Caribbean Sunset

 

"The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire." -- Psalm 29:7
I had put the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible on my Kindle before going on vacation and read this brilliant verse while walking around on our deck.
From where we stayed on St. Lucia we could see not only the Atlantic but the Caribbean. One evening we were treated to this dazzling sunset whose colors lasted a long time. Generally we have not seen many great sunsets in the Caribbean. I'm told you need polution to have good sunsets.
The expansive view we had, maybe 270 degrees, was a powerful reminder of God who is Unending Beauty. Thanks to that and to some of what I was reading, this vacation came closer to being a retreat than any I've been on with our winter group. I read "Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life" by Richard Rohr. He talks about how our spirituality changes as we get older. I found what he says in the later chapters about the second half of life echoes my own experience.
In chapter 10 this sentence grabbed me, "You learn to positively ignore and withdraw your energy from evil or stupid things rather than fight them directly." As I learn to do that, I find myself able to be joyful while much of what is happening in the church and in the nation seems "evil or stupid."
In the same chapter I found this wise observation: "Law is still necessary, of course, but it is not your guiding star, or even close. It has been wrong and cruel too many times." I came to this position on Church law a good many years ago and it has served me well.