The best is not always easy

By Jeff Becraft

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to speak at the chapel service for Garden City Chapel. So Brenda and I went down to Garden City Beach for the whole weekend, and our son Josiah brought his two kids in for the weekend as well. It was a great time to get together.

On Friday, Brenda and I had gotten down there before Josiah and the kids got there. So late in the afternoon, I get this lowrider beach chair, and I go right down to where the surf is coming in, and I sit down. It was the most refreshing thing of the day.

I am just sitting there relaxing. It is the late afternoon sun, water is rolling up, and I am just having a grand ol’ time.

There was also a YoungLife group from NC State that was staying at Garden City Chapel and they were starting to congregate out on the beach. There were about, I don’t know, 15 to 20 of them at this point that were hanging out on the beach and hitting the volleyball around, talking, and other things. I am just 15 feet away from where they are.

Later on I am describing this to Brenda, and I said, “You know, it was really cool. I’m just loving life. But as time went on, the chair (it’s already a lowrider), and now it’s sinking down into the sand…”

And then Brenda kind of merges in on to the highway of the conversation and says, “And then you had to get up…”

And I responded, “Yeah.”

Brenda had seen such scenarios of standing up at home.

Now this was going to be a problem. When I get down on the floor at home, whether that’s just lying on the floor after mowing the grass and cooling off or grandkids are in for the weekend and I’m down on the floor playing with them, when it’s time to get back up, I crawl over to some piece of furniture and I use that as my springboard to get up on two feet again.

Being out there on the beach in a lowrider chair that had sunken down into the sand, I had no such luxury. And here I am 15 feet away from a bunch of college students… and I’m thinking, “How am I going to pull this off?”

What I did was, I swung my left leg and left side of my body over, while I pivoted my right hand on the right side of the low rider chair and tried to push myself up. Well, I did, but I didn’t score a 10 with the Olympic judges on the dismount off the pommel horse. It was more like I barely stayed on my feet, and I’m waving my arms to catch my balance, so I don’t do a face plant into the sand, and then I have to watch out to not pull something (whether that be muscle, a tendon, or whatever… it doesn’t matter, it will still take weeks of putting heat and ice on it and doing special exercises to get it back…). So, it was none too glamorous. Who knows what the college students were thinking? “Poor guy… he can hardly get out of that chair.” (As they are diving for volleyballs and doing handstands.) “I wonder how he handles stepping over speed bumps?” But I did get up on my feet… and that is a good thing.

The easiest thing would have been to simply stay in the chair… and do nothing.

But then I would have missed out on seeing Josiah and the kids, seeing Brenda, having dinner, getting showered, sleeping in a real bed…

Sometimes what is easiest is not what is best. Usually, the best takes some sort of effort, even if that effort might be awkward, uncomfortable or difficult at first.

So, today, let’s not let what is easiest get in the way of what is best.

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope(opens in new tab) located in Columbia, South Carolina, where people find encouragement to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. Jeff has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. If you would like Jeff to speak to your group or event, you can connect with him at  [email protected](opens in new tab).