The weekend is over and it is Monday again. This weekend I had the privilege of going to Ocean Grove, New Jersey with my mom. It was honestly a great weekend of rest and relaxation. My home church goes on a bi-annual beach retreat to Ocean Grove, New Jersey so my mom and I have both been to this wonderful beach town before.
Let me start off by giving a little background of Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Ocean Grove is a small beach town in northern New Jersey located in Monmouth County. It was started in the year 1869 by a group of Methodist pastors. It is part of the Methodist Camp Meeting Association. Their vision is "Be the seaside community where all generations can know and grow in Jesus." You can really feel the presence of God in this place. It's like a little bubble of happiness.
On Friday afternoon my mom and I arrived in Ocean Grove. We grabbed dinner at one of the local restaurants. Yes, we did have some seafood! Afterwards, we got ice cream from one of local ice cream shops in town. By the time we made it back to the Inn where we were staying at, the skies opened up and we had an amazing thunderstorm. I'm not a huge fan of thunderstorms but this storm was amazing. It was a true light show and really showed God's wonderful creation.
Saturday was a wonderful day. We woke up, had a lovely breakfast at our hotel. We then walked down to the boardwalk to sit and decide our plans. Before we knew it, we had walked back changed into bathing suits and were headed to the beach. What an awesome day. I did not want to leave the beach at all. However, we did because Saturday night, we were going to be attending The Beach Boys Concert. We had our second round of Ice Cream at the other ice cream shop. We had such a great Saturday!
Since Ocean Grove is a Christian town, there are religious services on Sunday morning for those that want to attend. There is a 9:00 contemporary service at a pavilion on the boardwalk and a 10:30 traditional service in their big auditorium called The Great Auditorium.
At the 10:30 service in The Great Auditorium, my Youth Ministry professor Duffy Robbins was preaching. His sermon was titled "Tarzan Christianity" and he talked about how sometimes you are at an all time spiritual "high" (the tops of the trees) at a place like Ocean Grove and feel the presence of God. Then you have to go back to reality which is underneath and you feel farther away from God. Yes, that is so accurate at a place like Ocean Grove. I have experienced it at other places too.
It was honestly a weekend of rest and relaxation that I enjoyed. I felt a sense of peace this weekend and was not worried about anything. If you ever have the chance to come to Ocean Grove, I highly recommend this place. It is a truly unique and wonderful place. Looking forward to the next time I will go to Ocean Grove again.
