broken beads

South Padre Island during spring break is definitely an experience, one I will not soon forget.  It truly is a beautiful place.  After being there, I can understand why hundreds of people go there every year to get away for a week.
Of course, the beauty of the island isn't the only thing that draws the crowd.  Hands down, this was one of the craziest weeks of my life.  I went down there with my sister's college group as a part of Beach Reach.  Basically, it's a mission trip to the people on the island:  offering free van rides to anywhere, pancake breakfasts, and the Gospel (if the person is interested).  There's no way for me to write out everything I saw, but I want to try and share at least one thing that hit me hard.
One of the things you see everywhere, even miles outside the island, are beads.  They sell them by the hundreds, and guys buy them by the handfuls.  Girls, however, don't get to buy them...they have to earn them.  And many will gladly do what they have to for them.  It broke my heart to watch.
One afternoon we were coming back from the beach.  In the middle of the road was a broken strand of beads.  It was missing almost half its strand, and you could tell it had been run over several times.  The color was wearing off, and it had lost all its shine.  I have no idea how those beads got there.  Maybe they had belonged to a girl who had them, and then lost them.  Maybe they just fell off of a guy who was wearing them.  I don't know.  But as we walked passed them, I thought about what they represented.  How many girls last week did something they now really regret, all for those beads?  How many of them chose to sacrifice something precious, just to earn them?  How many are ashamed of the choices they made, and have nothing to show for it but a strand of beads...broken and cast off to the side of the road? 
Worse than that, how many things do I run after with my life?  How often do I sacrifice the very best I could have to earn something I only think is great?  How often do I choose the things of this world, rather than clinging to the thing the Lord has promised me is the very best--Himself??  My prayer today is that our lives won't be spent chasing broken beads, things that are cheap and plastic and just end up on the side of the road because they don't truly satisfy.  Instead, may we cling to the very best, and in holding onto that find satisfaction to the fullest.