I actually wrote this blog on the Copeland tour while we were in Virginia Beach, but for some reason never posted it.  So here it is… in all of its late glory.

(This photo is not in VA Beach… nor even the east coast,  but my favorite place in the world…. The Oregon Coast)

The big idea: the things that are bigger than us, the things that we don’t understand are what separate and differentiate us from each other.

I spent the morning walking down the beach.  The air was pleasantly warm, and abundantly fresh.  The sands were fairly vacant as it was still early.  A few people were walking along the shore, some throwing toys for their adoring dogs, and some just humming along to an iPod on their daily beach jog.  I on the other hand just strolled along at an even slower pace than normal.  The sand had a lot of shells that would at times sting my bare feet.  All in all the morning was absolutely peaceful, even though my racing mind never seems to be at rest.

My ears were filled with the thunderous sounds of the waves crashing on the beach.  They were only to be disturbed by the overpowering sound of an F-18 slowly passing over.  I looked straight out across the water.  Supposedly looking about 3 miles out and not seeing anything but the ocean’s blue until the earth’s curve hides what lies beyond.  I can’t help but think about what lies directly across from me.  I am in Virginia Beach staring straight across the Atlantic likely looking at one of the 34 million Moroccan people or perhaps a beautiful Portuguese woman on a beach in Western Europe. 

The Atlantic Ocean covers about a fifth of our planet but is still in second place in ocean sizes.  This massive body of water borders North and South America, the west coast of Africa, and Europe.  There’s such a vast difference in cultures on the lands that it borders, in a sense only separated by this mass amount of salty water.  As I look out my mind gets drawn into this thought that maybe the things that most divides the world are the things that are bigger than us, and that we don’t understand.  When I say bigger, I don’t mean just in size, but what I mean by bigger is in the idea that something has so much more to know about it than any one person can grasp.  A car is bigger than me, but a car is a fairly easy thing to study and understand.  You can’t pin a size on the wind, and I can’t explain it.  The idea of the wind is bigger than my mind. (at least at this point)  I’ve heard that more is known about space than what is known about our own ocean floors.  The ocean is a massive, powerful entity that is used to fuel our lives, but still has more power than we can neither produce or contain.

Sometimes the only thing between me and someone else is a different understanding of something that is bigger than us.  As I stare across this ocean and look toward these other lands a few thousand miles away, I know that we have completely different cultures, religions, languages, and lives, but I feel the biggest thing that separates us is this ocean between us. 

Now I know this isn’t some revolutionary idea.  I am the farthest thing from a scholar.  Being 22 with hardly an education past high school, I am not trying to formulate some new theory on how the world works.  I am only simply observing with a basic human mind.  I can’t help but think about how amazing this world really is, despite all the crap that goes on in our lives, despite all the politics and agendas, despite the legalism often found in religion, despite our circumstances… this world is still an amazing place.