The Pastor’s Piece, Pastor Kevin Cernek – Chaplain

FCFI

November 3, 2024

My wife and I took the opportunity to get away last week for a little R & R on the beach. The beach is always our favorite destination. It is such a beautiful place to be. It’s not only the warm weather and the beauty of the sun on the water and the waves lapping up on the shore, but also the fact that God gave man the challenge to go forth and subdue the earth He created. As one looks out across the surface of the water, it boggles the mind to consider and imagine all the marine life in the ecosystem in the waters below. 

Here in the Midwest, we live and exist in a farming community and I am constantly amazed at how seeds sprout and grow in season, and how through knowledge and technology the farmer has learned to overcome so many obstacles and farm so many acres. And the farmer is a character all his own – tenacious, eternally optimistic (he has to be or he wouldn’t bother planting his crops every year), hardworking and faithful and defined by so many other admirable characteristics. That’s the life we know, but there’s another whole different world out there. 

When we’re at the beach and I look out from the shore and see tuna boats lined up on the horizon as far as the eye can see, I wonder what life is like for weeks on end out there. The same characteristics, I’m sure, that define a farmer also define a tuna fisherman and his deckhands. They must put in long days and nights working themselves to their physical limits hoping to turn a profit.

When one goes on vacation, consumerism is on full display. What we spend on pleasure, these beach entrepreneurs need to make a living. Parasailing is a popular event here. We tried it once, but at a price of about 80 bucks per half hour, we don’t do it very often. The same is true of deep sea fishing. It’s fun, and they guarantee you will catch something, but you can’t do it everyday. We caught quite a few fish when we went and when we got back to the dock, there was a man there who cleaned them for us for 25 cents each. Then we took them to a restaurant across the street where they had a special if you brought in your own fish. They would cook them the way you wanted, serve a soft drink, salad and one side for a grand total of 7 dollars each. That was a few years ago so I’m sure the price has gone up. But even so, that made a great vacation memory. 

There are a lot of other ways to spend your money on a beach vacation, but there’s also a lot one can do that costs nothing. Like, for instance, taking your lawn chairs and just sitting on the beach and periodically taking a swim in the ocean. You can watch the parasailers as they float a few hundred feet above the surface of the water – it’s as if everything has been slowed down to super-slow-motion. You can watch sail boats float effortlessly across the sea. If you have it in you, you can stay and watch the sun slowly disappear as it sets in the water. Sun, surf, sand, breeze, and quietness makes a nice way to spend an afternoon. 

Back at the town house, we decided to take a midnight stroll around the neighborhood. It’s mostly safe because there’s a wall around the community and guests have to be let in by a 24 hour security system at the front gate. So, we did a four-mile midnight walk. I would say close to 90% of the residents have a dog. Their dogs need walking before they turn in for the night so it’s not unusual to meet someone walking their dog at midnight. 

One house we walked by was over-the-top in Halloween vestments. There were spooky skeletons, lights, sounds, and giant blow-up spiders and monsters and other characters and shadows on the wall meant to scare you and give you bad dreams. There were noises of a woman screaming, and relentless cackling laughter, and a deep, deep male evil laughing sound. It almost made us want to cross on the other side of the street – except that we’re not afraid (because greater is He that is in us, then he that is in the world). Funny the extremes people will go to in order to celebrate Halloween. 

So, this guy and his dog walked right on past all of the above without a peep from him or the dog. But as my wife and I approached them, the dog barked at us and pulled on his leash like we were the culprits of some sort of evil and it was up to him to stop us. 

Psalm 95:4-5: “In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.”

(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin).