Weekend Trip to Montezuma ( with Photos!)

     So this weekend 11 friends and I went to Montezuma, a small forest and beach town on Costa Rica's Pacific Coast. The weather was exceptional and the scenery was gorgeous. Living so close to the Great Lakes most of my life, the salinity of the Ocean waves is still a shock and ongoing adjustment.

     In the days leading up to this trip, I had been a little worried taking a whole weekend off and falling behind on homework and some projects due in the next couple of weeks. Once I got to Montezuma, however, those worries quickly melted away. Walking through the forest and hearing the beautiful calls of the various tropical birds that were hiding in the foliage overhead, I reflected on what Jesus said regarding suffer: Look at the birds of the air: they neither reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one second to his life span? (Mt 6:26-27) We can glorify God through laying down our worries and doubts, which provide us no benefit, and taking up the mantle of trust and faith in He who knows our deepest wants and, more importantly, most pressing needs.

     The theme of trust continued this weekend on Saturday morning. After getting up early to watch the sun rise over the ocean, I was reading morning prayers and drinking coffee in the outdoor lounge when my friend Colin sat down and joined me. We began conversing and he showed me one of the daily prayers he recites, one I had never before seen. It's a Covenant Prayer written by Methodism's founder John Wesley:

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

     Reading that prayer led me to do an examination of my own conscience, during which I realized that I have not been as humble and patient with others lately as I want others to be with me. It is easy to criticize others for their faults and join others in pointing them out. On the other hand, it is quite difficult, even a form of suffering, to willingly overlook somebody's flaws in acknowledgment that, regardless of their shortcomings, they are still a child of God and endowed with the same dignity and respect you and I pridefully expect to be afforded.



     Looking back with a clear head at how I have talked about some people during the past month, I feel ashamed and disappointed. These sins of pride are not small matters, for what would happen to us if God dealt with us as severely as we deal with others. Yet in Psalm 130 I find comfort: If thou, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee. (Ps 130:3-4) In God, there is the forgiveness we often withhold giving others. That is certainly something to consider the next time harsh words about another are about to exit our mouths. If we are truthful with ourselves, there are probably more harsh words we can utter about ourselves than about everyone else we know combined. The choice, then ought to be first between silence or self-critisism. Operating as such, I think one would find a lot less noise polluting our peace.