Category: College

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Well THAT Almost Ended Badly!

Late August/early September is when college students usually head off to school to continue their education. I had some fun jobs during college. One of the ways I kicked off my senior year was by starting a job as a Teacher’s Assistant during a half-semester kayaking class.

In my senior year I was Vice President of our kayaking/whitewater rafting club, and had already spent a good amount of time playing with kayaks in the college’s pool. I liked the job because it had hours that worked for my schedule and was fun to do. A lot of it was simple stuff: setting up and putting away equipment, helping students get sized for their boats, helping them get in and out of the water, and just kind of being another set of eyes while a class full of novice paddlers grew in their ability to operate out on the water.

On our first day the teacher went over the different types of equipment we’d be using. Early on we just focused on the boat itself, the paddle, and the skirt. The skirt is so named because it resembles that article of clothing. You step into it, pull it up around your waist, and cinch it snugly around your waist. When you sit in the boat (still wearing the skirt), you stretch the rest of the skirt (the hemline, if you will) around a lip lining the boat’s opening. When paddling through rough water or you end up capsizing, the skirt prevents water from entering the boat and swamping it.

Skirt with a red loop at the front

It takes a little practice, but it doesn’t take long to get proficient at attaching the skirt to the boat. If you find yourself in a situation where you have to get out of the boat quickly, there’s a big loop at the front of the skirt you can tug on, easily breaking the seal and allowing you to exit. For safety reasons, one of the first things we did in the pool was practice flipping upside down while in the boat, then yanking on that loop so students got familiar with how to safely get themselves out of a capsized kayak.

If you’ve never used a whitewater kayak, they have sort of a different feel to them as far as how they move in the water. The keel is shaped differently from canoes or flat-water kayaks, so they handle differently. Designed to be more maneuverable in volatile currents, it’s easy to flip whitewater kayaks over if you try to turn them without flexing your hips to present more of the boat’s bottom toward the water you’re heading into (that might still be unclear; just know that it’s easy to flip the boat in a turn until you figure out how to do it). To gain experience, the teacher had everybody get into their boats, get in the pool, and have a friendly game of kayak water polo (no paddles, just hands).

It was a fun way for everyone to get used to how the boats felt in the water. Every now and then someone would hit a turn in a way they didn’t expect and end up tipping over. That team would be down a player while they dragged their kayak out of the pool (with some help from the teacher), got it drained, and got back into the game. It was a good way for the students to start putting together some of the basics.

The game continued for awhile, and everybody began gaining proficiency, so some of the students got more competitive. I raced against one of them to the ball, and I think the only reason I came away with it was because I knew how to anticipate the turn. He got there quickly, but he flipped his boat either reaching for the ball or trying to turn without doing the hip thing.

Whenever someone flipped during the game, we paused until we saw them safely exit the boat and their head broke the surface. I floated very near his boat, waiting, but he didn’t come up. I saw the boat shaking and his hands grabbing the underside of his boat, as though trying to push himself up and back, out of the kayak. For whatever reason, it wasn’t working; the guy wasn’t getting out of his flipped boat and he couldn’t get his head above water to breathe. Fortunately, we were in the shallow end of the pool. I pulled my skirt and rolled out of my boat into the water, then got to his kayak as fast as I could. Since time was a factor I skipped trying to help him exit the kayak and grabbed the stern of his boat, then twisted the whole thing hard so he was right-side up and could breathe again.

As the excitement faded and heart rates started coming back down to normal, we figured out the loop of his skirt was tucked underneath its hem. In his haste to get into the water, he had only focused on securing the skirt around the boat’s opening, and hadn’t paid any attention to ensuring the loop was easy to grab. When the time came to use it, it wasn’t there. It was like a fighter pilot needing to eject, but the ejection handle wasn’t there.

Is there any safety measure in your life you’ve been neglecting? The Bible gives plenty of advice about wise living. While few of its passages address situations as urgent as this, they nonetheless confront challenges every bit as dangerous. Are you hanging out with people influencing you negatively? Are you in a relationship the Lord wouldn’t approve of? The wisdom books of the Bible (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon) provide plenty of insight on things to avoid and things to pursue. It explains the power of having friends you can trust (Ecc.4:9-12), the value of holding your temper (Prov. 19:11), the personal character we should strive to have (Psalm chapter 15), and numerous other bits of wisdom that can vastly improve the quality of your life.

Read these books, and then read them again. Reflect on different passages that stick out to you, and memorize them. When they help guide how you think and live, they help steer you away from the types of danger others fall victim to.

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Hoping for the Best is Not a Course of Action

I went into college not knowing what I wanted to major in. That kind of thing is fine, as long as you figure it out a semester or two into the degree. I didn’t figure out what direction I wanted to go until I started running out of general education classes and had to decide what to start concentrating on. I’ve written before about how the choices (or lack thereof) I made early in college affected how the rest of my college career turned out.

I think I was halfway through my sophomore year when I figured out I was going to pursue a degree in biology. If you’re majoring in any kind of science, you’ll need to complete a lot of science classes (imagine that!). Science classes normally come with a lab session that occurs in the afternoon, so a typical science class meets for three hours during the mornings of a week, and one afternoon a week there will be a three-hour lab session. If you stack up two or three science classes in a semester, you start running out of room in your schedule. You can see how it’s nice to spread out the required classes over eight semesters rather than five.

Since I found myself running a little behind schedule, I looked around for opportunities to catch up. It turns out my school offered something called a May term. After the regular spring semester ended and most students went home, a handful of classes were available. One-credit courses like tennis lasted a week. Two-credit classes went two weeks, and so on. One of the options was a four-credit science course I’d need for graduation. I ended up enrolling in it and stuck around after the spring semester wrapped and all my friends went home for the summer.

That class had to be one of the most stressful classes I took for my whole degree. The course material that was normally spread out over a semester got compressed into four weeks. Class all morning, take a lunch break, then meet in the lab for three or four hours every weekday afternoon. After that, grab some dinner, go back to your room and work on a paper or read the next chapter for the following day. I would read the material, but my mind just didn’t have the time to absorb it like it did during a normal semester. The lab sessions relied heavily on genetics experiments we did with fruit flies, which had a 14-day life cycle, and we needed to get at least two generations to have results for our final paper, so there wasn’t much room for error. While students in other classes spent their afternoons playing ultimate Frisbee or sunning themselves on the quad, I spent my time worrying about bug larvae.

The weeks went by, and as the shorter classes finished up, fewer and fewer students remained on campus. I was so stressed. I was the oldest person in the class; everyone else was an honors student who had spent the second half of their freshman year doing a semester abroad, and this class was mostly available to help them keep up with their pre-med degree plan. I wasn’t quite on the same level as them academically.

I eventually made it through the class, but it was a rough go for awhile. Here’s the important thing: I did this to myself. I didn’t do it on purpose, but it was my lack of planning ahead that led to this predicament. I had to live with the consequences of my own actions.

As Christians, we have the hope of the life to come, but first we have to make it through this one. People of all races, nationalities, and backgrounds are Christians, and Heaven will be full of incredible diversity as we’re united in Christ. All of us, however, will have had to live with the consequences of either our actions or someone else’s actions. That could mean broken relationships, poor credit history, self-inflicted medical issues, or a variety of other challenges.

As a Christian equipped with spiritual gifts, how are you empowered to either help yourself or help others through the unique challenges in life?

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There’s no Business Like Snow Business

In the last week or so here in the DC area, we’ve had the most snow we’ve had in a couple of years. Though it’s just about completely gone by now, the snow and accompanying cold snap we’ve had has got me thinking of days gone by when I spent more time in the snow.

I took up the sport of cross-country skiing when I was in college. I took a half-credit class my Freshman year, and man, did I enjoy it. After I got bit by the bug, I got a job repairing/maintaining the school’s skis (which meant I could take them out whenever I wanted), I went out and bought my own skis, and I spent a lot of time skiing around the college’s cross-country running trails. I can only remember cutting class once in college, and it was to go out XC skiing on new fallen snow on a Friday afternoon.

One of the things I liked so much about cross-country skiing was the mobility I had in places I wouldn’t otherwise go. When you couple that freedom with the peacefulness that’s out there in nature, with sounds muffled by the snow, it was something I enjoyed very much.

Well, I need to tell you about a dopey move I made on skis. The college I attended had its own mini ski slope. It wasn’t anything major, but it was great for teaching people who have never gone downhill skiing before. For those that aren’t familiar, these are two very different types of skiing. Downhill skiing is the stuff you do when you get all bundled up and ride on chair lifts, and cross-country skiing is the stuff that NordicTrack tries to simulate. This ski slope had a green circle (bunny slope) to teach students the basics, a blue square to give students more room and a steeper slope to try out their skills, and a black diamond (more of a blue square plus) with a still steeper slope to let students pick up some greater speed.

One night a buddy and I wanted to go take advantage of the fresh powder that had just fallen. One of the best places to go was near the ski slope. The ski slope was closed and there were no lights in the area, but after being out in the dark for awhile my eyes adjusted, especially with the snow making things brighter.

Now cross-country skiing isn’t exactly the most relaxing sport. You’re doing a lot of work; you’re always either kicking with the skis or pushing with the poles. Since you’re the one providing the propulsion, the sound and cadence of skis and poles moving through the snow are ever present. That constant effort makes you really appreciate the free trip you get when going down hills, and it can seem almost otherworldly to glide down a hill without all the noise.

The powder on this occasion was deep enough that it prevented me from building up a lot of speed. It was just the right depth that I could go sailing straight down the main ski slope without bombing down the hill at a breakneck pace, something you don’t normally get to experience on cross-country skis. Only the front tips of the skis stuck out of the snow, and as they blazed trails through the unspoiled powder, snow the consistency of powdered sugar sprinkled with salt caved back in on the skis and covered them, all while I moved down the hill with no more than a gentle swishing sound. It was a delightfully serene moment I wanted to capture as best as I could.

I had my camera with me (back when people carried cameras but not phones), and even though I knew it wouldn’t do justice to the real thing, I wanted to try. I took out my camera and turned it on, and looked through the viewfinder (remember those?) to get the view of my skis that I wanted. I pressed the button, and a brilliant flash from the camera, which then reflected off a totally white surface, blinded my perfectly adjusted night vision as I continued straight down the hill.

Very quickly I realized there was a decision I had to make. There were trees, machinery, and other stuff at the bottom of the hill that I could crash into and get seriously hurt, but I figured I would probably miss it all. My vision might even come back early enough for me to make out any dangers before I got close to them. I could also start turning across the slope to buy myself some time for my vision to return, but then I would be heading toward some trees for sure. Cross-country skis don’t turn as easily as downhill skis, especially in powder, so that would also be an action that would benefit from being able to see.

Well, I probably could’ve made it to the bottom safely, but the choice seemed to be all risk and no reward, especially considering how soft it would be to fall down in that much powder. I intentionally fell over and waited until I stopped seeing stars. My serene moment was fun while it lasted, but it ended when I slumped down into a frozen white blanket until I could see again.

It’s a pretty unremarkable picture if there’s no context

Whatever the weather’s like where you are, I hope you’re healthy and well, that the first month of the new year has been treating you right, and that in the coming weeks you get some weather you enjoy.

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When the Routine is a Painful One

Back in college there were a few of us among our larger group of friends that would hit the weight room on a regular basis. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday around 6:30 pm, Tyrone, Gabe, and I would meet up and head over to the gym.

It was a good routine for us; most of the time all three of us kept the appointment, but of course there would be times when one of us had to catch up on school work, make up some time on a project, or pull some extra hours at work, so the trio would be down a man. That’s when having a group of three paid off, there would still be two guys that could meet up and get a workout done.

Consistency was the key to results. Getting into a routine was important, and after a few weeks of regular workouts, the body came to embrace the physical stress. It was also a good mental discipline for all of us. There were definitely times when I didn’t feel like going, but knowing there were two other guys that were going to come looking for me to go with them helped get me ready to head out the door.

Now, missing a workout every now and then wasn’t a big deal. You can skip a workout and still jump back in without much of an issue. Christmas break, on the other hand, was something you had to figure out how to deal with. Bench press and bicep curls were some of the mainstay exercises we did in the gym, but neither of those exercises were something you really performed naturally in normal life. If you had a couple of weeks off from school (and the weight room), you probably missed a bunch of workouts unless you did something really creative to stay in shape, and those muscles didn’t take long to begin to atrophy.

Every January when we arrived back on campus, we kind of dreaded the first time we got back into the weight room. We still had muscle mass, certainly, but it had noticeably lost some of its density and tightness. We wanted to get back into our routine, but we were also a bit reluctant to get started up again because after you go for a few weeks without doing unnatural movements like bench press, and then you start doing it again, it becomes very painful.

What we came to realize was that it wasn’t the first workout back that we needed to fear, it was the second.

On the first workout back, we’d try to hype each other up a little bit, probably spout off something about working out harder in the new year, and grit our teeth as we pushed through. Sure, we took a couple of steps backward for that first workout, but the goal was to just get through it.

On the second workout back, we wouldn’t be gritting our teeth, we’d be wincing in pain. The acute stabbing pain in our pectoral muscles was terrible as we asked our bodies to work through the soreness that came from our first workout back. The only way to get to the other side of the pain and back into the reality of exercising without that kind of hurt was to just keep going. “If you can make it through the second workout, you’re home free,” we used to say.

As Christians, we’re entrusted with spiritual gifts. If Christ is your savior, you’re equipped with what you need to perform the work God’s asking you to do. We go through different phases and chapters in our lives and we’re capable of giving more effort in some phases than in others, but at some point during our lives God calls us to do something on behalf of His kingdom.

Perhaps it’s been a few chapters since you were willing to step outside your comfort zone to follow God’s will for your life, and you’ve been trying to get back to fulfilling your calling. Things tend to align against you and work to dissuade you from getting back into that sort of routine.

I can’t sit here and honestly tell you that you only have to get through two sessions of whatever it is that God’s called you to do before it gets less painful, but I would encourage you not to give up, and urge you to stick with it. To His followers, Jesus promised persecution, difficulties, and generally some hard times. He said that we’d need to have perseverance and grit to stick it out. I may not know you personally, but I can tell you that you’ll have challenges in this new year. Stick it out. Hang in there.

I’ll leave you with two Bible verses on perseverance. One is addressed to you as an individual who needs encouragement to follow Christ, while the other is addressed to you as an individual who’s exhorted to fulfill your calling. In both cases, note the need for persistence and perseverance.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. –James 1:12

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. –Galatians 6:9

May 2023 be a year of persistence and growth for you, and I wish you the best in getting past your discomfort and into the routine God wants you to pursue.

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“Kayaking” + “Rappelling” = “Kayelling?”

(I apologize in advance to my email subscribers; there are a lot of pictures in this post. If it takes up too much room in your inbox, you can also check it out at https://daregreatlynow.com/2021/12/16/kayaking-rappelling-kayelling/)

Today is the 20th anniversary of a very unique event that happened in my life. For those of you that are longtime readers of DareGreatlyNow, you know that I’ve had some strange experiences. When I call one of them “very unique,” you know it’s got the potential to be a doozy.

During my senior year of college, I was the Vice President of the whitewater kayaking and rafting club, which we called “Paddle Sports.” The club itself was having a great year, and the President (a buddy of mine, Bryan) and I agreed that we wanted to do something to further drive up the club’s membership for the following year.

Every Spring our college had a talent show, and Bryan and I determined to make a video that showed some of the fun things that could be done in the club. We used some footage of fun stuff we did in the pool and some trips in local rivers, and we wanted to combine it with shots of Bryan and I (and maybe a few others) doing weird stunts using some of the club’s gear. As an example, one of the things we wanted to do was to get footage of the two of us bombing down the college’s small ski slope in one of the club’s smaller whitewater rafts.

Well I forget why, but we never got around to that one. We did, however, come up with another idea. Both Bryan and I had some background in rappelling, and between the two of us we had a fair amount of equipment. We came up with the grand idea of recording me rappelling down a cliff in a kayak.

This was a pretty intriguing idea to us, and we actually put quite a bit of thought into it. In November we scouted a location with a very tall cliff and set up the rope, but then when heading down in a normal rappel just to check things out, I discovered that the cliff was too tall, and the rope didn’t reach all the way to the bottom. That’s a dealbreaker. It was a tough break, too, because there’s not a whole lot of afternoon daylight at that time of year and Bryan and I were very busy as the semester went on.

November scouting trip; kayak in the background. Need a ladder or a longer rope.

Fortunately we were able to get our schedules to line up again at the end of the semester, on December 16th (it’s funny how far some students will go to avoid studying for finals). We found another spot on the same wall that was a little shorter, but if we didn’t pull it off this time, it probably wasn’t going to happen. There was likely to be too much snow on the ground to make it work in January.

It’s funny how much “ridiculousness” you’ll put up with for the sake of doing something challenging. We had to hike a kayak, two ropes, harnesses, and gear up a huge hill and through the woods to get to the top of the cliff. We needed to use a very steep wall in order to reduce the chance of getting the boat hung up on something on the way down. Thankfully most of this wall was very steep, with the exception of a sloped portion at the top.

Second attempt. Bryan’s turn carrying the boat.

We got topside and found a spot where we could set up solid anchors. After confirming that the ropes reached all the way to the bottom, we each did a test descent to get a feel for things, then decided to go for it.

Bryan and I both knew a good bit about knots and anchors at the time, but rigging a kayak for descent was something new for us both. Circumstances necessitated that we set up two systems, one for me and one for the boat. I couldn’t just ride down in a kayak without being harnessed in; I might fall out, for one, and kayaks aren’t designed to be suspended from the bow and stern while holding someone in the middle. Also, kayaks are heavy; if I were harnessed in and the boat wasn’t, I’d have to have Superman’s lower abdominal strength to hold the kayak level during the descent. Besides, this way if something absolutely nuts happened, I could get out of the boat and still maintain independent control of both my body and the kayak. (I just wouldn’t have any shoes on during that event because I couldn’t fit in the kayak while wearing them.)

  • Testing the balance and rigging
  • Bryan setting anchors

Well, I slid over the edge of the cliff in the kayak, but I ran into trouble almost right away. As I slid sideways down the cliff, the bow got caught in a shrub growing on the side of the cliff. It wouldn’t have been a problem, except for a funky dip in the terrain where the tip of the stern got wedged. Due to this freak terrain feature, I was stuck in a boat, I dunno, probably at least 60 feet up, without even being able to reach the wall with my arm.

  • Starting the descent
  • Seriously?! I’m stuck!

It seemed like no amount of shaking or rolling would break the boat loose. I was stuck for almost 25 minutes doing one long sit-up while trying to figure out what to do. The double-rope system ended up coming in handy; Bryan held the trailing end of my line taut from below while I got out of the boat and stood against the cliff (with no shoes) while shaking the kayak loose. He literally held my life in his hands as I let go of control of my rope to focus on breaking the boat free. (Thanks Bryan…much love!)

  • This isn’t a small cliff
  • Shaking, rattling, and rolling

After that things went much smoother, though it still took almost 10 minutes to descend the rest of the way. It’s slow going in a kayak that was meant to conquer whitewater rather than cliff walls. All told, it took about 35 minutes to get from top to bottom when it could have been done in less than 60 seconds without a kayak.

  • Broken loose at last! Thanks Bryan!
  • That’s more like it
Finally made it to the bottom

Well anyway, we showed the video to the student body during the Spring semester. A few new faces started showing up at our pool sessions, but I think most of the rest of the students were permanently put off by the demented maniac in a boat.

Fast forward 20 years, and I’m still waiting for that Mountain Dew or Red Bull sponsorship to materialize. Know what though? That experience is part of the recipe that makes me who I am today. Who rappels in a kayak? Unless you know some hardcore paddlers, you’ve probably never met anyone that’s done it. For me though, it’s helped shape the way I think. While many people scoff at crazy ideas, I’m one of those that say “well hang on, just because it’s crazy doesn’t mean it’s impossible.”

Unusual? Yes. Unconventional? Absolutely. Here’s the beauty of it, though. When God made you, He broke the mold. You can search the world over, but there is simply nobody like you. The places you’ve been, the people you’ve known, the experiences you’ve had…for better or for worse…all combine to make you who you are. Quit trying to fit into the image of what you believe other people think you should be, and just…be you. God saw you coming millennia ago, and He knows exactly where you’re going.

You may not have combined multiple adventure sports, but maybe you’ve done things that make you feel like it’s hard to fit in or like you don’t have a group of people you can relate to. Just know this: if you’re yourself…no matter how weird or zany that may be…God won’t have to “figure out” what to do with you or how to use you to grow His kingdom. There’s been a role waiting for you all along.

So if you’re a Christian, go ahead. Be you. It’s who you were meant to be all along, and God’s got plans for how He’s going to use you.

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An Ordinary Fella With an Extraordinary Legacy

The college I went to was more than four hours’ drive from where I lived. When I first showed up, I wasn’t familiar at all with the region surrounding the campus, which was out in the boondocks. I was fortunate enough to have a car during my freshman year, so once during some free time, and before I even figured out who any of my friends were going to be, I headed out for a drive.

The college was, truly, out in the middle of nowhere. Cornfields and forests surrounded the place. My natural inclination was to become familiar with the town that would have the nearest movie theater, Walmart, and a couple of cheapish restaurants to choose from. I figured out how to get there and headed in that direction.

While I was driving around the place, my car stopped working. I don’t remember what the problem was, but I think the clutch fell apart, so I couldn’t shift gears. This wasn’t a problem I could limp back to campus with; I couldn’t drive the thing at all anymore.

Now, this was way back in the dark ages when I didn’t have a cell phone or a GPS. I ended up calling home from a pay phone somewhere (remember those?) and getting some advice. Fortunately my folks had set me up with a Triple A membership before I headed out to school, so I was able to get linked up with a tow truck that came and found me and drove my car and I back to school.

That solved the immediate problem, but I didn’t know what to do next as far as fixing the car. College wasn’t cheap, and neither were mechanics. I hated dealing with garages and auto shops because I knew so little about car maintenance that they could be ripping me off and I’d have no idea. My parents got in touch with the parents of someone who had just recently graduated from the same school, and asked if their son had ever dealt with car issues at school. They recommended I get in touch with a man named Bob that worked in the college’s maintenance department.

I looked him up, and it turns out that his wife Martha worked in an administrative position in the science building, and she had signed for many packages I delivered during one of the work/study jobs I wrote about previously. I told him about my problem, and he was open to taking a look. He was a super nice guy and helped put me at ease. I told him the make, model, and location of my car, gave him the key, and he went to survey the damage.

Bob somehow got my car into the workshop and fixed it for me with no fuss. When I met up with him to settle the bill, I was mentally preparing myself not to flinch when I heard the number. It was very low, though. It turns out that this sweet, white-haired, soft-spoken man, probably in his early 60s, only charged me for the cost of the parts, and he fixed my car without charging me anything for the effort he put into it. I was incredibly grateful, because money definitely was not plentiful, but I had to do something for him. He wouldn’t take additional money, so I went to the store and bought a bag of candy for him. When I gave it to him and told him to have a great day, he gave me a big smile and said “can’t help that now.”

I don’t think I ever interacted with Bob again during the rest of my time at school, but just recently I received an alumni magazine in the mail. It’s interesting to look in the sections that give alumni news by graduation year. I like looking to see things like who got married, who had kids, who had some kind of notable career development. There’s also the dreaded “in memoriam” page that lists fellow alumni that have passed away. As I perused the pages, I was startled to find that both Bob and his wife Martha passed away this past fall, just over a month apart from each other.

Bob was a special guy. I have no idea how many students he helped during the course of working at the college. The poet Maya Angelou had a quote that said something like “at the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they’ll remember how you made them feel.” I believe that through Bob, God made me feel as though He were saying “look, don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

I’ve written before about sweet, ordinary people that God has used in my life during a time of great need. The sad news I received from this magazine reminds me to pass along some encouragement to you. You might not feel like you have anything special to offer to God’s service…you may not be well known, and you may only have limited means…but if you’re faithful in your pursuit of Christ and in the employment of the gifts He’s entrusted to you, rest assured that He will use you for good in the lives of others.

Lord, I thank you for Bob and Martha, the lives they lived, and the legacy they left. Thank you personally for the way Bob blessed me, and please use this example from his life as a way of blessing, encouraging, and even spurring others on as they live for You. Please give the two of them a hug for me, and let them know that they’re still affecting people down here for the better. Amen.

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When Actions are Dictated by What You Have on Hand

You may have an idea for how you’d like to execute a plan, but sometimes your resources dictate your strategy.

Let me give you an example of what I mean.

In college a buddy of mine, Rich, and I both had paintball guns, ammo, and masks. The nearest paintball place was…I don’t know…forever away, and I’m sure it wasn’t cheap. Our school was situated in a pretty rural setting, and this was a generation ago, so stuff we could get away with back then probably wouldn’t fly today. The two of us figured “hey, there are acres of forest nearby, how about we do some one-on-one out in the woods?”

We were both game, so we went out to the woods one day with our paintball gear. We agreed on the boundaries, set up a time limit, and discussed some other rules. I had my Walmart special…a cheapo pump-action paintball gun that came with a 10-round tube and a mini CO2 cylinder that fit inside the handle. I don’t know where Rich got his, but I know it was a semi-automatic paintball gun with a hopper that held about 200 rounds and a CO2 canister that was just about as big as the hopper.

He could probably spray about a dozen paintballs in the time it took me to fire off two. The ratio was even worse if I wanted to shoot with accuracy. If I got into a firefight with Rich, he’d obliterate me. I’d be pink or yellow for a week. The only way I could win was if I somehow got the drop on him, but I needed a strategy.

Since the tools at my disposal didn’t give me a lot of offensive horsepower, I decided I’d find a good ambush spot and try to make my first shot be the only shot I’d need. Once we split up and headed into the woods, I took off running along one of the trails, looking for a spot that suited my needs. I forget the exact measure that we agreed on, but we were able to go up to five or 10 steps off the trail on either side. I found a spot that gave me a decent field of fire and was far enough off the trail that he shouldn’t spot me right away.

I pushed a bunch of leaves into a pile and then sort of crawled under them, spreading them out over me as best I could. The idea was to stay hidden so he’d get close enough for me to take my shot. Once I got my camouflage set up, I chambered a round, turned off the safety, and waited.

It’s funny how nerve-wracking waiting can be. Trying to lay silently under a pile of leaves doesn’t really work for a significant length of time, and any noise you make seems like it gets amplified. You don’t have the same quality of vision wearing a clunky mask, and it starts to get fogged up as you get hot.

Eventually Rich came into view, patrolling the trail. He was locked, loaded and on high alert, ready to grease anything that moved. As he approached, it looked like he was going to get close to me without noticing my position. I tracked him with the gun, lining up my shot as my finger tightened on the trigger. I went for it. I took the shot, hoping to end the game with one trigger pull.

I missed.

The shot gave away my position and Rich unleashed paint fury as he ran out of the kill zone. It all happened so fast I didn’t even try to load another round as Rich’s suppressing fire rained down paintballs all through the area I was hiding in. Then, he was gone. I blew my only chance. It turns out that aside from about 10 seconds, this wasn’t a very exciting paintball match. Time soon ran out and we were both still alive; it was a draw.

The thing is, though, I don’t see how I could’ve obtained a better outcome. My circumstances dictated that no matter how aggressive I wanted to be, I had to choose a path that considered the resources at my disposal and gave me greater odds of success.

The same may hold true for you in your Christian walk. After Christ gets hold of you, He usually has some things He wants you to accomplish in your life. It may be as simple as forgiving someone you feel has wronged you. For Saul (later Paul), the plan after his salvation was to be a missionary and church planter. For us, reading the Bible almost 2,000 years later, we say “well, yeah, it’s Paul…being a missionary and planting churches is what he did.” Sure, but there was a time when that plan wasn’t so clear. Paul didn’t know right away that he was going to make four missionary trips, get shipwrecked three or four times, get bitten by a poisonous snake, receive 39 lashes on five different occasions, endure an earthquake in prison, and be stoned and left for dead. By the time he died, he had survived all of those things, but before he even encountered the first one of them, he had to start somewhere.

Maybe you’ll one day be a giant of the faith. Maybe you already are. Here’s the thing though: God sometimes limits your resources, or removes opportunities from your life so He can steer you toward something you wouldn’t have otherwise chosen. We usually think of it as something bad, but it’s more like a divine course correction.

All that to say…if you’ve been looking for a way to serve God but aren’t quite sure how to get started, consider this question instead: taking into account the time, skills, and other resources at your disposal, what CAN you do? The fewer the options, the clearer the choice.

Lord, I know in my head You have a plan for my life and You want me to use the tools I have to bring You glory. Help me to see the direction I should go, what I should do, and how You want me to get started. Please also help me to realize and accept that even if I don’t get it exactly right, I’m not going to ruin Your plans. Amen

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Playing For An Audience of One

Part of our college graduation requirement was to deliver a “Senior Seminar” in our chosen field of study. This was essentially an in-depth presentation on a faculty-approved topic related to our studies. Each department’s students sacrificed a few Saturday mornings during our final semester and took turns presenting our topic to the department faculty and an audience of our peers.

Although it’s not always the case, science presentations can be boring. All of us biology majors had to sit through some dry (but meticulously researched and well-sourced) student lectures. Most of the bio presentations were either in the pre-med concentration or the ecological field of study.

You may remember from a previous post that I had fallen behind in my major early on in my academic pursuits. As part of an attempt to catch up, I did a summer project where I went out into a wooded area near my house and repeatedly set out 25 small live traps to perform a wildlife survey. I set out little red flags to mark the spots to place the traps, and six or eight times I baited them with various seeds and left them out overnight. It was fairly involved and I thought I’d be able to write up a report to obtain a few college credits for this study. Well, that didn’t work out, but since I had already done it, I figured I’d do my senior seminar on it.

Overall it went well. After hearing so many abstract presentations that were difficult to grasp meaningfully, the biology professors seemed to enjoy hearing about an experiment that one of the students actually conducted in the field. In fact this presentation was the only one that drew questions from all of the faculty members. One of my non-biology housemates showed up to support me, too, which meant a lot. I ended up getting a very good grade, and I probably allowed it to inflate my ego a little more than I should have.

Weeks later one of the biology professors approached me and said “we have a campus-wide visit day coming up for prospective students. As part of the programming, each department has a current student give a presentation for visiting students interested in those respective majors. Would you be interested in delivering your senior seminar on behalf of the biology department that day?”

It was an honor, for sure. It would be good resume fodder, and it looked like I could get a bit more mileage out of that summer project, so I agreed. I gathered my notes, looked at the feedback I got from my seminar and made adjustments, and rehearsed as the event drew near.

The day eventually came, and I waited in the lecture hall prepared to do my presentation for the numerous prospective biology students that would surely come to tour the campus that day. I had no idea how many visiting students would show, but I was ready. I had even started getting cocky by this point. “They asked me to do my presentation, probably because it stood out so much. I don’t even have to do a great job; it’s not like this is a class of my peers…these will only be high school kids.”

Well, that guy still had some growing up to do, and his lesson was about to begin.

The clock kept ticking and it was nearly time to start, but nobody showed up. Finally, one student and one of their parents came into the lecture hall. There was nobody else.

Whichever professor represented the biology department that day spoke a little about the department, introduced me, then let me take it away. It felt weird, playing to an “audience of one” (and their mom or dad) who sat in the back row of a theater-style lecture hall. It felt like sort of a waste, but I went through the entire presentation again.

This time at the end, when I asked for questions, there were absolutely none. The visiting student just wanted to get out of there and stop hearing about the mice I’d caught.

It was a lot different from the first time around. I have no idea if that student chose to attend my alma mater, or if maybe they decided right then and there to look for a different school and/or major because they were afraid they’d have to go out in the woods and try to catch mice or something.

Well, the experience helped bring me back to earth. It helped me better understand the concept of playing for an audience of one. As Christians, we need to be careful about whose approval we seek. It’s also important to examine our motivations. Are we working for Christ’s glory, or our own? Yes we all have talents, but are we using them in ways that would make God happy? I don’t know who I’m talking to right now, but someone reading this needs to think about how they’d feel if they’re busy using their talents or resources when Jesus taps them on the shoulder and says “I can see what’s in your heart, you know.”

We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our heart. 1 Thessalonians 2:4b

Lord Jesus, there are things you’ve done in my life that make me uniquely prepared to serve you in certain capacities. Although some of my experience comes from things I’ve worked hard to earn, help me to recognize that You ultimately control what direction my life takes. Please show me the places in my own mind and attitude where I need to make adjustments in order to ensure I’m working to glorify You and not me. Amen

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When Your Tank is Empty but There are Still Miles To Go

During my Junior year in college, our men’s dorm held its own version of the Olympics.

The games consisted of a variety of events. There were some conventional events, some less-conventional events, and some downright nutty events (I was thankful to be one of the referees, rather than one of the participants, in the event where you had to reach into a bag and eat whatever you pulled out). The games were memorable and went late into the night.

For some events the scoring system was straightforward. There were four floors represented, so in an event where all four floors participated simultaneously (a relay race, for example), the first-place finisher got 400 points, the second-place finisher got 300, then 200 for third place, and the last-place finisher got 100 points.

For bracket-style events, the scoring system was a little more controversial. We had two very good chess players in the dorm, and chess was one of the events. Events like this were split into two matches for round one, and then the winners from both matches would meet in the finals, and both losers from round one would also go head-to-head. The winners’ bracket would place first and second overall, and thus be awarded either 400 or 300 points. When these two talented competitors faced off in the first round, one of them had to lose. That guy was then forced into the loser’s bracket, where he could earn no higher than third place overall.

Well somehow I found myself representing my floor in the arm wrestling event. I was no slouch, but in this event I was definitely outgunned. It would be an understatement to say that I was not favored to win the event.

Due to the scoring system, the strategy I settled on was to use up everything I had in the tank to try to win the first match. That way if I could pull off a win, I’d avoid the loser’s bracket and be guaranteed a minimum of 300 points for our team even if I lost round two in an embarrassing fashion.

For the first match I got paired up with a guy named Tyrone. Tyrone was a buddy of mine, and we regularly lifted weights together a few times a week. We each had our strengths when it came to different exercises in the weight room, but trust me when I tell you that he had the advantage when it came to the explosive power and brute force required for arm wrestling.

I developed a new strategy…just try to last longer than 10 seconds!

We both sat down and established our grips, and the judge started the match. For about a second and a half, our hands went nowhere, a perfect balance of strength. Then Tyrone’s muscle simply overpowered mine. My fist steadily descended toward the table. A few seconds into it, this one was already just about over. My knuckles were so close to the table, but he couldn’t seem to close the deal. He didn’t quite have the leverage to bring his power to bear on my barely alive wrist.

I think at that point Tyrone changed strategies. It seemed like he took his foot off the gas and just waited for me to get tired. Since his advantage lay with his power though, he should have gone for the kill.

Surprised that I was still in it and that I wasn’t yet headed for the lower bracket, I resolved to give it everything I had. The problem was that the force I could generate using “everything I had” became less and less as time went on.

The seconds ticked by. A match that should have been over in 5 or 10 seconds was still going at 30 seconds. Then it passed 60 seconds. Those watching started out enjoying the match with shouts and yelling. Some of those spectators got bored and walked away, only mildly curious about the outcome.

Anybody watching could see that I was in pain, wincing and just barely hanging on. The whole time, Tyrone sat there, cool as a cucumber, just waiting for my strength to give out. He tried a few more times to go for the kill, but it didn’t work. Nobody was more surprised than me when he just gave up and stopped trying. He let me push his hand to the table surface. I can’t say I beat him, but I advanced to the winner’s bracket!

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been talking about finding and pursuing the thing that God put you here on Earth to do. It’s your “I have to;” it’s your God-given purpose. For those of you trying to ignore it or push it to the back of your mind, consider this: everyone that’s ever existed either already has, or someday will, experience two “rounds:” this one on Earth that we’re living right now, and the one that comes after this one. You may not think of it in these terms, but this current round is the one that determines where we experience the second round.

If you’re a Christian, please don’t misunderstand me, it’s fantastic that you’ve accepted Christ as your Savior…but for almost everyone other than those who experience deathbed conversions, your Christian walk is probably meant to go deeper. The Holy Spirit has a way of prompting you to move in directions you don’t want to go, of pushing you to do things you don’t want to do. And you know the crazy part? Many times it’s for the sake of making an eternal impact on someone else, but it’s not something you could have (or would have) planned on your own.

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him. –James 1:12

So even if you’re wincing in pain while barely holding on, surprised that you’re even still hanging in there, let me encourage you to give everything you’ve got despite the pain so that this round has a bigger impact for those on your team (and those that will join your team in the future)! The opposition may look like they’re fresh and powerful, but you never know what’s going on behind the scenes. Do not give up! Save nothing for round two; put everything you’ve got into round one, and let round two figure itself out.

For those seeking closure, even if I were fresh and didn’t have an exhausted arm, I wouldn’t have been able to beat Dave, the guy I met in round two. I think that round ended with my hand on the table less than 3 seconds after the match started.

Tyrone, if you’re reading this…I still can’t claim victory, because I didn’t actually beat you; you just let me win. I have no doubt you should’ve won! You were an animal in the weight room. As a testament to how strongly I believe this, I’ll admit that I’m kind of afraid you’re going to read this and come find me and demand a rematch!

PS – The answer’s no, unless you’re really weak now.

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I Used to Skinny Dip. Now I Chunky Dunk.

If you’ve read some of my previous posts and suspected that I’m crazy, you’ll be sure of it after this one. Stick with me though, it’s going somewhere.

For a few summers in high school and college, I worked at a Christian conference center. The summer staff, made up mostly of teenagers, lived on the campus and did a variety of jobs during the summer. “Summer staff” made for lots of fun memories. The days were long, but the weeks (and summers) were short.

I don’t know if this still happens today, but back then the girls had a tradition where, once a summer, they’d sneak out after curfew and hit the pool for some late-night skinny dipping. Every summer, the morning after the annual excursion happened, the guys would be disappointed because it had gone on right under our noses, while we were sleeping, and we hadn’t even been aware that it was happening. (We caught them in the act the previous summer, but I was on crutches, so I couldn’t play much of a role in it.) It was a huge morale boost for the ladies to get away with something so dangerous, and it would temporarily suck the morale right out of the guys’ side of the dorm.

Well, the following summer I was a counselor, so the curfew wasn’t an issue for me. It would have been fun to catch the girls in the act, but it would’ve been impossible to keep watch every night of the summer. Rather than have the guys stay up late trying to catch the girls (and making it tougher to stay healthy in the process), I decided I would instead try to deter the girls from sneaking out for their annual tradition. A few complete coincidences worked in my favor, and I probably went a little overboard further developing my “unhinged” persona. One time, by complete luck, while I was locking up the kitchen at night, I looked out the window and saw three of the summer staff girls running out of the dorm toward the kitchen, for what I can only guess was the need to raid the fridge. I couldn’t resist the opportunity. That night when I had entered the kitchen, I didn’t turn on any of the lights, so I was walking around in the dark. I hid and waited silently. Sure enough, the three came sneaking in without turning on the lights. As they drew near, I jumped out from wherever I was hiding and yelled “YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE IN HERE!” They screamed in absolute terror and ran out with their hair standing straight up. Hopefully they got a snack somewhere else.

Now, you have to understand that back then, I had more enthusiasm and energy than direction. I got a little crazier and, in my exuberance, I dug up a camouflage military uniform that I would put on as it drew near the time for lights out. Sometimes the camo makeup went on, too. I’d let everyone see me in it, and the impression everyone got was that even as everyone was going to bed, I was heading outside into the dark to do Heaven-only-knows what. I wouldn’t do this every night, but I did it often enough to keep would-be curfew breakers guessing whether or not I was out there waiting for them. It was a page from Bruce Wayne’s book.

In full summer camo one night…

Another complete coincidence worked in my favor. Sometimes I really would head outside, all dressed in camo. My main purpose was merely to be seen heading out into the darkness, but since I didn’t want to be seen coming right back in again, I had to stay out for awhile. Most of the time I just found a comfy place to lay down in the grass, and in truth I enjoyed the quiet and stillness of the normally busy place while I was out there. Sometimes I fell asleep. One time, though, as I turned the corner of a building, I came across four of the staff girls, just sitting on the grass overlooking the pool, breaking curfew. At least one of them was someone that I had earlier caught sneaking into the kitchen. They weren’t doing anything wrong (other than being out after curfew), but to them it seemed like I just…knew when they were out there doing something they shouldn’t be doing.

This is the winter version; blowing my nose wiped off part of the makeup, but when I painted up it looked like this

The end result of all this was that I cultivated an impression that just wasn’t true, and it ended up influencing others’ behavior in a way that I wanted. There were countless nights where they could’ve made it to the pool without any problem at all, but it was the fear of some weirdo in camouflage hiding in the bushes that kept them from taking part in the adventure they wanted to be a part of. More often than not, I was actually asleep in my bed way before lights out, but without knowing that truth, late-night pool adventures got postponed.

Here’s where we “land the plane” on this entry. As Christians, we have an enemy that cultivates the same kind of image. If you’re a Jesus-follower, you have the unimaginable power of the Holy Spirit residing in you, but if your enemy can intimidate you into entertaining or giving in to your doubts, he’s effectively countered the power you have inside you. In military terms, he’s negated your will or capacity to fight, even though you’re equipped to dominate.

It’s all just clever tricks and deception. Remember the truth: as a Christian, you are more than a conqueror! Don’t be held captive by lies! Not only do you have defensive armor available to you, but you have the greatest offensive weapon there is…the Sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:10-18). Properly prepared, you can walk boldly and confidently into a spiritual battle and emerge victorious. Think of it this way: if you don’t have the will to fight, the enemy can use the resources he would have used on you…somewhere else. Make no mistake: he’s going to use them, if not on you, then on someone else. If you and the Holy Spirit combat those forces, you are fighting back against the darkness and tying up enemy forces, enabling relief elsewhere. (See Daniel 10:1-14 for an example where this happened to an angel.)

The Prince of Darkness excels in lying and deception. Do you believe the lies he wants you to believe, or are you willing to trust God’s truth? Don’t believe the lies. Get up and get in the fight.

In a couple of weeks I hope to start a series on some more of the tactics Satan uses against you. Subscribe today to be sure you don’t miss it!