Before I went to bed last night I was deciding whether or not I would wake up early to catch the sunrise. Of all the times I’ve been to the beach in my life (maybe 10 or 15 times), I’ve never actually gone out on the beach to witness the sun rise over the ocean waters.

The battle with myself was this:

Get up early and witness something magnificent, that you’ve never seen in this way before…

…or take advantage of one last morning to awake naturally from slumber, no screeching alarm involved.

I really wanted to see the sun rise over the ocean, but then again… sleep.

As I laid my head on the pillow I made a compromise with myself. I would set my alarm for 5:30AM and if I felt like I needed more sleep in the morning then I would turn my alarm off and go back to bed, but if I felt the urge to bundle up and go down to the beach I would get myself out of bed and ride down to the beach for a little adventure.

Unfortunately I had had a little too much caffeine during the day and I couldn’t get myself to fall asleep. I tossed and turned a bit and watched as the minutes ticked off the clock. Thirty minutes of sleep lost. One hour of sleep lost. Opting for the sunrise was looking less and less likely at this point, because… sleep.

Eventually I drifted off to sleep only to awaken for my 5:30AM alarm. I hit snooze and debated for a few… maybe ten minutes as to what I should do. Hey, don’t judge me, the wake up struggle is real. So as my mind and body argued about what we were going to do with our morning, I scrolled through the new emails that had been delivered to my inbox in the middle of the night. One of those emails contained ‘Your Daily Food for Thought,’ from the Dynamic Catholic Institute. They’re inspiring, they’re brief, and they’re daily. Boom! Love it!

I opened up the one for today and it read:

I had two instinctive reactions.

1. Crap. Now I’ll feel lazy and guilty if I don’t get up now, even though… sleep.
2. Yes! I’m a fighter and I want the first victory of the day to be mine. Here we go. Seize the day! Sunrise on the beach, here I come!

Number two won. I threw myself slightly together, bundled up, grabbed a beach towel, and jumped on a bike to head across the street to the beach. As I made my way to the boardwalk, I was slightly panicking that I had missed it already. It was starting to get light out, the sun must have peeked over the ocean already.

‘How could I have missed it? Chris, the beach guy, said the sun would rise at about 6:30AM. Both of my weather apps said it would rise at 6:17AM! Ugh! If I got out of bed for nothing… sleep. Man, it is freezing out here. Pedal faster, Jackie! Suck it up. Get there. Remember, you are a fighter!’

Early morning conversation in my head is weird. I know.

I ran to the boardwalk and felt sweet victory. Still no sun climbing above the water into the morning sky. I had made it, and it wasn’t even 6:00AM yet. So now to wait…

I bundled myself up in an oversized beach towel and walked down to the sand, all I could see was the glow from the soon to rise sun, paving the way for the world to be lit up. I looked to the east and then to the west. Off in the far distance I could see a couple walking the beach, probably going for their regular morning walk, or just a few more hopefuls waiting to catch the sunrise. They were so far away that the beach, the ocean, the sky, the world… it all felt like it was mine and just mine. It was like I was entering a privately reserved movie theater just for me, except this motion picture was real life, and the producer and director was God.

I sat in the sand and waited. I watched the rainbow colored sky add more colors to the spectrum as the sun made it’s ascend. All was calm and the water was like glass, with an ever so subtle, yet constant flow of smaller than normal waves brushing along the shore.

The sky brightened, minute by minute, and then… it happened. The sun broke the darkened plains and humbly began to make it’s presence known. It was quiet, it was calm, yet it was bold.

Not unlike the sun that rises each day, God wants to spark the light within us each day. He wants to bring us to life and let the light that shines from within us (Him) to speak for us. The light is humble, it is quiet, it is calm, but it’s presence is bold and it leaves it’s mark. Furthermore, it’s NEEDED. Your light and my light are needed just like the sun light.

The sun rise this morning was miraculous to witness, really. It’s funny how the magnificence of something so grandeur can loose it’s effect because we choose not to see it for all it really is. We decide instead to sleep in and miss out on God’s motion picture. It happens every day and is nothing short of a miracle. The sun will rise in the east and set in the west, all the while it is cloaked in light and beauty.

Don’t miss out on your life. Seize the day. Make the sacrifice so you can live a life of adventure, speckled with God’s miracles.

Now please excuse me while I go seize the rest of my last day at the beach.