When I was in college I took classes in Outdoor Leadership, which included developing skills in both technical areas and in leading individuals and teams toward outcomes. One day our class was learning about how to properly set rope anchors for rock climbing. Obviously, it’s very important that your equipment catches you if you fall off a rock face, so our instructor was teaching us how to secure the safety rope to a number of anchors we had established at the top of the cliff.
The instructor, Kevin,
demonstrated a variety of ways to attach safety equipment to boulders and trees
at the top. He made a point to emphasize that we’d need to establish three
solid anchors before being able to proceed. “That way, if one of them
fails, you’ve still got two. Even if two of them fail, you’ll still have one
more.”
Of course, someone
asked the question. “What if this one goes, that one fails, and the other
one goes, too?”
Kevin looked at him, confused.
“You mean if all three of them
fail?”
“Yeah.”
“Then God wants
you dead.”
When you have a God-given
task laid out in front of you, it’s certainly a good thing to spend time planning
and preparing, but there comes a point where you’re prepared enough and it’s
time to get moving. Kevin didn’t want us to establish four anchors, or five.
Three was enough. The chances of all three anchors failing was so low that
setting more of them would have been a waste of time. If we spent time focusing
on more than three, that time took away from our actual reason for showing up
at the cliff that day.
It’s possible to take
so many safety precautions that it becomes too cumbersome to do anything. There
comes a point at which you are suitably prepared, reasonable precautions have
been taken, and you’re ready to leave the comfortable behind. The only thing
that remains is for you to take action.
By all means plan
effectively. Expect problems and make backup plans if necessary, but don’t let
perpetual planning stop you from getting started. If all the necessary pieces
are in place, it might be that you
are the only thing holding you back. What are you waiting for?
There was a lake not
too far away from the college I attended. Some of the college’s classes either
took place on the lake or took field trips here. I did some canoeing on the
lake for one of the Outdoor Leadership Training courses. The college offered waterskiing
during the first half of the fall semester, too.
I don’t remember what
course it was; it must have been some kind of Biology or Ecology class that
brought us to the Lake one September day. Our class was going to use the same
speedboat that the college used for waterskiing to go out into the lake and take
water samples at various depths.
There were too many
students in the class to bring out in the boat all at once, so we split into
two or three groups that took turns heading out to the middle of the lake. The
driver, a student named Laura, spent a few minutes driving out to deeper water,
a few minutes taking samples, a few minutes joyriding, and a few minutes
heading back to the dock to switch out students.
I was in the last group
of students to head out on the lake. In order to make room for more students,
the professor stayed behind on the dock while the rest of us rode off to the
middle of the lake. As we sped along, I looked around the boat. It was very
similar to the one I had driven for a few summers and had enjoyed going
kneeboarding behind. As providence would have it, on the floor of the boat sat
a lifejacket, a kneeboard, and a ski rope.
We started collecting
our samples or doing whatever experiments we were supposed to do. I wanted to
say something about wanting to give kneeboarding a try, but thought it would be
too crazy. As we wrapped up our tasks on the lake, I couldn’t help myself any
longer. I forget how I did it, but I asked Laura if she’d be open to letting me
jump in the lake to go kneeboarding. To my great surprise, she said
“sure.”
I didn’t ask any other
questions. I lost the shirt/shoes/socks, emptied my pockets, donned the life
jacket, grabbed the board and rope, and jumped into the water. It was cold, but
I didn’t care. We got lined up, Laura hit it, and we were off to the races. The
water was a lot choppier from the wind than I was used to, but I was kneeboardingin a science class.
We were far enough away
from the dock, or maybe around a bend in the lake so that the professor and my
classmates on land couldn’t see us. We didn’t want to goof off too long and get
in trouble, so after a bit of tooling around, Laura stopped the boat and I
climbed back in. We stowed everything and headed back to shore. Come to think
of it, I don’t think anyone on shore even knew what we’d done.
There will be key moments in your life where you only
have a single opportunity to seize the chance to do something you want to do. There’ll
be times when it simply will not happen unless you step out and make it happen.
If you hem and haw, you’ll be stuck watching as the opportunity passes you by.
You might have to
abandon the norms you’re accustomed to. I didn’t even have swim trunks, but
when Laura said she was open to my request, I was in the water with no
questions asked, wearing whatever clothes I already had on.
Many times in this blog
I’ve written that God will place opportunities in your path to do something
great. I’ll use this post to clarify: He will place the opportunity for you to
do something great just off your path.
God loves the timid, but He also has a special place in His heart for the bold.
If there’s something big, bold, and brash that you feel called to do on Christ’s behalf…don’t sit on it. God might bring an opportunity near your orbit, but you’re going to have to pursue that chance…you’ll need to run after it and chase it down. If you feel called to make it happen, live with abandon. You might even have to jump into the cold water with your regular clothes on.
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My old college laptop: before wireless capability, with a battery that lasted about 20 minutes
I’m not exactly the most technologically savvy
person out there. I’d probably still have a flip phone if the one I used to
have didn’t quit working. Up until a few months ago, I had a Blackberry. I’m
not yet to the point where I’ll have to ask my kids for help adding a new
contact, but I can see that happening some day. I had to get my wife’s help emailing
these pictures from my phone to the computer.
When I was in college, the school I attended was
pretty advanced as far as how “connected” the campus was. I don’t know what the
actual ranking was, but I think it was in the “Top 100 Most-Wired Campuses in
America” or something like that. Our class was the second or third that the
school mandated purchase a specific model of laptop. All our dorm rooms, classrooms,
and hangouts had Ethernet connections. It was horrible and clunky by today’s
standards, but it was pretty cutting-edge at the time. (Anybody else remember
something called a “dongle?”)
A dongle…let’s take the most fragile piece of equipment and put it where it’s most likely to break.
Some aspects of living on a wired campus were nice,
but back when this was all very new, we had a lot of network outages. Sometimes
it was only for a short time, but every now and then they’d last for an hour or
more, and it always seemed to happen exactly when you needed connectivity the
most. One afternoon I was in my room, trying to get something done online
before my next class. The network lost connectivity, and I wasn’t able to do
whatever I was trying to do.
For whatever reason, this outage was particularly
frustrating for me. Normally I’d just do something else for awhile and check
back later to see if the network was back up. This time I figured I’d go in and
mess with my computer’s settings; I thought I’d heard some tech-smart friends
talking about getting their laptops to work during outages sometimes by
changing some of their computers’ settings, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I
don’t even remember what I did…I think I changed some ports or something in a
tab somewhere. I couldn’t figure anything out and I had to get to class, so I
left my computer running on my desk and left for class, frustrated.
When I came back about an hour later, our dorm’s
Director and the college’s head IT guy were standing at my door, about to head
in. Apparently the network started to come back up, but the settings I changed
impacted not just my laptop, but the school’s whole network. Nobody on the
college’s IT staff could bring it back up until my computer was either
disconnected from the network or the proper settings were restored. It turns
out I was an accidental cyberterrorist, and the dorm’s Director had to vouch
for me so they didn’t get security involved. “Honest, I’m not a hacker…I just don’t
know what I’m doing!” I’m pretty sure they made it so net-wide settings like
that couldn’t be changed by unauthorized personnel after that. To all the
students that came after me and didn’t have to deal with outages due to fellow
students’ actions…you’re welcome.
(Not too long after that we had a weekend where
parents came to visit. We were having lunch on Saturday with some of the
parents, along with some faculty/staff. The professor that sat with us was one
of my teachers, and he was complaining about a recent time when a student
actually took down the whole network. He wasn’t laughing at the absurdity of
it, he was actually still kind of mad about it. I’m sitting right next to the
guy, having a hard time in his class. “Oh really, THAT’S what happened? Man,
that’s a shame.”)
Sometimes you make decisions that have an impact on
what you’re doing. Sometimes you make decisions that have an impact on what other people are doing. Even worse, with
some of these latter decisions, you don’t even realize the ramifications of what you’ve done until it’s after the
fact. I crippled the ability of the whole student body to do anything online,
and I did it without even knowing it. In order to set things right, an expert
in the subject area had to step into the situation and fix it.
There will be times when you’re the goober that gums
everything up, and there’ll be times when you’re the one in a position to help make
things right. The goal is to minimize the number of times you’re in the first
category and to not take it out on the goobers too bad when you’re in the
second category.
People make mistakes, and people let you down. We’ve
all done it. Some people are extraordinarily talented at holding grudges for
even the slightest of mistakes. While it’s true that you should take notice of
trends in a person’s “mistake history,” it’s also worth thinking about giving
them another chance, especially if you’ve already kept them in the doghouse for
awhile. If it were you that messed up, wouldn’t you want another chance?
I’m thinking of getting a t-shirt that says “I was a hacker before it was cool,” but because some people know I can’t even find what I’m looking for on Netflix, I’d probably have to tell this story every time I wore it.
If you look close, you can see the rope that I’m hooked into, going across the creek
I went to college in
western New York, where there are tons of creeks, rivers, and waterfalls. We
had a series of waterfalls on a creek not far from our school, and it was a
great place to go just for the sake of appreciating the outdoors. It was fun to
go swimming there at the start of the school year in August or September, but
it was such a nice place that we came up with other stuff to do there that didn’t
involve swimming.
I had some
rock-climbing ropes and gear, and we decided to try to make a zipline across
the creek. It would be so cool to stand at the top of one of the falls and jump
off, then go sliding along the rope across the creek in front of the waterfall.
As it turns out, I only
had enough gear to tease us into thinking it was possible. I was able to make
anchors on both sides of the creek, but we couldn’t get the rope tight enough.
If I had jumped off the ledge, I would’ve started zipping across the creek,
only to have my weight make the rope sag, and I would’ve slid right into the
water.
It wasn’t a bad idea to
try out, but it wasn’t feasible with the equipment I had on hand. If the rope was
longer, I could’ve anchored it higher on the uphill side and increased the
descent slope. Alternatively, if I had some ascenders, we could’ve pulled the
rope tighter and had less of a problem with sag. Either way, I likely would’ve
ended up in the water anyway.
I don’t share this story with you because the outing was a resounding success. In fact, at the end of the day, I didn’t have a whole lot to show for it, other than these pictures. This near-adventure, however, added to an expanding pool of experience from which I could draw during future adventures. As the saying goes, “good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions.”
Some of you might be
hesitant to give something a try, even if it’s something you’d ultimately like
to do. Don’t let your fear of failure hold you back. Even if you’re not completely
successful, it could add to your knowledge base for the next trial.
“I have not failed. I’ve
just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” –Thomas Edison, on making the first
electric light bulb
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The guy in the back with the dorky pose…don’t know him
The sun came out for
our second day on the whitewater. The rain and gloom had passed, and we were
all much more relaxed now that we had survived the first day of paddling. The
mood lifted once the gray skies, drizzle, and apprehension gave way to sunshine
and confidence.
As far as the water
level, this was a perfect scenario; it was an April weekend that followed a
large amount of rainfall in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, but the warmer
temperatures and rain helped melt a lot of the snow, which also ran into the
river. The result was a river so swollen with churning whitewater that even
many of the local guides had never seen it quite this big.
Our second day was a
little different from the first. This time we linked up with one of the local
outfits that knew the river pretty well, and we stuck close to them for a
collective “safety in numbers” advantage. Laura was still our raft’s captain,
and I was still paired with her to project the voice commands a bit further,
but we rotated some of the paddlers around between boats.
In the afternoon, the
local boat was in front of us, and then the next two rafts were ours. As we
came around a sharp bend in the river, all the color drained from our faces.
Spanning two thirds of the river was a gigantic standing wave that had a nasty
rip curl at the top. It was a freak river feature that could only occur when
extreme amounts of water shot through that section of the waterway. The guides
didn’t know it was there, and none of us out-of-towners expected to see
anything like it.
The local boat saw it
too late, and all they could do was try to paddle through it head-on. It was
too much for them; the boat got flipped right away and everybody got dumped in
the chilly water. The rest of us paddled for all we were worth to get to the safer
route. We safely made it past the wave, then surveyed the damage. Since we were
the first boat on the scene, we made for the biggest group of helmets bobbing
in the water. We started grabbing people by the life jackets and pulling them
aboard. The raft behind us picked up the guide, but we got everyone else. Our
kayakers started buzzing around the area picking up dropped paddles, disposable
waterproof cameras, and even somebody’s bottle of Coke.
We were very near the capsized raft at that point. I thought back to all the raft-flipping I’d done in the pool during the dull winter months. I must’ve flipped a capsized raft at least 50 times in the pool. All that training was perfect for a moment like this; if I couldn’t use that knowledge and experience now, what was the point of doing it at all? I wanted to go after it…
I actually put my foot
up on the rim of the raft to jump into the water. I turned back to tell Laura I
was about to go after the raft, but that’s when I realized the state of
complete disaster our own raft was in. It was pandemonium. Our raft was meant for
eight people, but we only put six of us in it at the start of the day. Now our
raft was bogged down with 14 people, only half of which had a paddle. Our raft
was a self-bailer, meaning it had holes in the bottom so water that splashed in
would drain out on its own. Instead of the normal inch or two of water on the
floor, now it was midway up our calves. We were still flying down the river,
but we were largely at the mercy of the current, headed towards God-only-knows
what kind of waves, whirlpools, or strainers, and nobody knew the plan to meet
up with the other rafts.
The people we just
picked up were understandably chattering away about what just happened. They loudly
thanked us for plucking them from the water, but all their excitement started
causing a major communication breakdown for our crew and all we wanted was for
them to stop talking! Laura’s tiny voice was yelling, trying to establish some
sense of order, but it wasn’t doing much to get through to the newcomers. I was
paired with her exactly for the purpose of echoing her commands loud enough for
everyone to hear. I wanted so badly to go after the flipped raft, but it
would’ve meant leaving them in an even more chaotic situation.
I turned my back on the
capsized raft and started echoing Laura’s commands in a voice loud enough for
everyone to hear. Our guests quieted down and our crewmembers in the front of
the raft, no longer distracted by excited yammering in their ears, were able to
hear us and start pointing us in the right direction. Everyone with a paddle
dug just about as hard as they could, and we sluggishly moved out of the main
current into the calmer waters near the riverbank. In the middle of it all, our
trip leader, Tim, paddled his kayak up to the flipped raft and jumped on. I was
pretty distracted with the situation in our raft, but the last I saw of him, he
was laying on the raft with a big grin, paddling hard and looking like he was
having the time of his life. (I know you’ll read this at some point, Tim…you
beat me to it!) Anyway, it took awhile, but we eventually gathered all three
rafts to reunite the guide and crew with their boat.
It was an adventure,
for sure. In the moment, it was absolutely crazy and scary, but even now, more
than 15 years later, I bet everyone on our trip remembers that portion of it. The
trip had so many fun details that I had to journal about the experience (which
is where I looked for a refresher)!
I can’t even tell you
how much time I spent practicing how to right a capsized raft while in the pool
at college. Most of it was done just for fun, but each time I did it, it helped
contribute to the overall muscle memory and cementing the automatic steps that
would need to occur when a raft actually flipped over on the river. What better
time to use this experience could there possibly be than this opportunity?
Here’s the crux of it
all though: just because you’ve focused so much time and effort into training
or preparing for a specific type of ministry or situation that you ignore
things that are “outside your lane” when God drops them in your path. To truly
be a player on God’s team, you need to be willing to do what needs to be done,
whatever that may be. Even if you haven’t prepared for a given scenario, He’ll
make sure you’re equipped with everything you need when He presents a new
challenge to you. The only thing you might be missing is a willing heart, and
that’s something only you have the power to control.
During my senior year
of college I went on a whitewater rafting/kayaking trip with a club at school.
It was April, and the following month was graduation, so it was sort of an
early celebration of finishing college.
At our pre-trip
meeting, our faculty adviser, Tim, told us that we’d have some non-students
joining us. Some were alumni from the club, others were people he knew from
other endeavors. There was one guy, Joshua John, that joined us for the trip,
but he didn’t really know anybody else other than Tim. I thought that was
probably kind of an uncomfortable situation for him, and I was one of the
club’s officers, so I made a mental note to go out of my way to make him feel
welcomed. Turns out he was into some extreme physical fitness workout routines.
He was a man of few words, but was definitely someone you’d want sitting in the
front seat of your whitewater raft, getting doused by big water while setting
the cadence for everyone else in the boat.
We had some crazy
experiences on that two-day trip, and I’ll cover one in the next post. We drove
to the Adirondacks in upstate New York, and went rafting on the Upper Hudson
River. When we left school, everything was sunny and warm and everyone was in
good spirits. Everybody started getting quiet as we arrived in the mountains to
find that it was raining and some spots still had a good deal of snow on the
ground. After some scouting around we set up camp in the rain and in the dark, split
up camp chores, and took care of whatever we needed to do, then headed off to
bed. Somewhere in here I made sure to track down Joshua John and told him we
were glad to have him along with us.
The next morning it was
still raining, but we hit the water anyway. The river was even higher than
normal during the spring thaw, and everyone was a little jumpy. We had two
rafts, and there’s usually a bit of competition among rafters when there are multiple
boats. It helps build camaraderie and teamwork, so the competitive spirit is
generally a good thing. The other raft was fun; they’d start spinning while
going through rapids, or in calm water the crew all stood up on the edge and
tried to run around the outside of the raft without falling into the water.
Good stuff like this helps make a trip more fun.
Run around the raft rim
The captain of the
other boat, Steve, was mischievous. He was out to get the two of us that were
co-captains of our boat, an alumnus named Laura and I. Laura was physically on
the shorter and smaller side. The other boat’s crew took it upon themselves to
sneak up behind us during calm water, grab Laura, and pull her into their boat,
essentially kidnapping one of the captains. It was funny, unless you were
Laura, who helplessly became a temporary hood ornament for the other raft.
Over the course of the
two days they tried sneaking up to try to get me too, but most of the time we
were able to either get away or fend them off. On the second day they snuck up
on us again and a couple of their goons jumped into our boat and grabbed me.
They tried throwing me over the side, into the river. They caught me off guard
and I knew they were too much for me, but I didn’t want to make it easy for
them. I resolved to hang on as long as I could before they overpowered and
dunked me.
While my jaw was clenched hard and my eyes were shut tight, there suddenly came a clamor from the front of my boat. Bodies got shoved out of the way as Joshua John jumped into the fray. He picked up one of the attackers and threw him straight down hard into the water. The other invaders bailed out of our boat and jumped back to their raft. As the first guy surfaced again, confused and gasping for air, he asked with wide eyes “what the heck was THAT?!” He looked up to see Joshua John standing in our raft, barely breathing hard. He resolutely said “I have to protect my captain.”
I’m glad I found him early in the trip to say hi!
Just remember that as you go through life, the way you interact with people affects how they interact with (or on behalf of) you and others. It’s not always going to be quite this dramatic, but are you positively impacting others enough to make a difference?
Sometimes when you’re
stuck in a waiting period, you just need to make the best of it.
In my senior year of
college, I was the Vice President of the Paddle Sports club. This club was for
people that wanted to try their hand at kayaking and whitewater rafting. The
academic year is kind of tricky for paddling because school’s not in session
during a huge chunk of the prime season, so we held pool sessions twice a week
during the entire academic year. During those sessions, it was a great opportunity
for newcomers to learn the basics of kayaking. The problem was…when there were
no newcomers, or when the winter began dragging on, those pool sessions got
kinda dull. If you already knew how to roll a kayak, you had to come up with
other ways to keep it interesting.
In the pool, those of
us that were regulars would try strange stuff: try to roll a capsized kayak
without using a paddle; setting up a kayak on one of the diving boards and
getting in, then sliding off the board into the pool; putting on a life jacket
and trying to swim down to the bottom of the pool’s deep end to retrieve
something from the floor. Out of all of it though, I think the nuttiest stuff
we did involved practicing righting a capsized raft.
When you have a whitewater raft full of people, and you’re shooting through some big water, it can be a dangerous thing if the raft flips and people get scattered. It’s best to have at least a couple of people in each raft that know how to flip it back over. That way if a raft gets flipped in some whitewater, whoever’s closest can flip it back over and get on with the business of bringing everyone back into the boat.
Example of righting a capsized raft
Each raft used in
whitewater rafting normally has a rope tied to at least one of the sides. If
the raft flips upside-down, someone climbs up on top of it. While grabbing the
rope and standing on the opposite edge of the raft, they lean backward while
pulling on the rope, eventually falling into the water and flipping the
capsized raft back over the right way.
Once you know how to do
it, it’s not a difficult thing to do. It’s important to practice though,
because it’s one thing to do it in the pool, but it’s something entirely
different when you’re bobbing through whitewater, trying to climb up on the
raft while wearing a wetsuit, helmet, and life jacket, all while holding a
paddle and trying to count heads.
We did a lot of
raft-flipping in the pool. The basic version gets boring quickly though. You
start trying to make it more interesting. I tried dozens of times to flip the
raft while timing the jump just right so that I landed in the righted raft
without falling in the water. We paired up and had a guy swim under the
capsized raft and hang onto a pontoon, so that when the other guy standing on
top of the raft flipped it over, there was already a guy in the boat. We doubled
the number and had two guys hanging onto pontoons while two other guys flipped
the boat. We even had three guys on top of a capsized raft…as two guys flipped
it, the third guy tried to get catapulted into the water (although he
miscalculated and got flipped the wrong direction). It was goofy stuff that was
just fun, didn’t hurt (much), and served no practical purpose other than
helping to pass the time.
What am I getting at? Sometimes
you’re going to be stuck waiting for awhile. Whether it’s a low-level job where
you have to put your time in, maybe a military assignment that’s a terrible but
necessary rung on the ladder, or maybe some season of life where you have to
put your primary plans on hold for a bit, you’ll probably find that God put you
in (or you got yourself into) a situation where the things you want to do are
going to have to take a back seat for awhile. In Paddle Sports, we had the
luxury of the season being predictable; we knew we wouldn’t do much outdoor
paddling from November to February, but things were going to pick up with the
spring thaw. A predictable season is the reality for some, but for others, they
don’t know how long they’ll be waiting.
If you find yourself in
the middle of your own version of the “winter months,” hang in there. Surround
yourself with people that will keep your spirits up and keep spurring you on. There’s
usually a lot you can do or learn even in those trying times. Spring’s coming,
but for now, do your best to make the most of the time you’ve got.
In 2002 a college buddy
and I took a trip to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. We got to be
spectators at a biathlon, short track speed skating, bobsledding, some downhill
slalom, and cross-country skiing events. On top of the events themselves, one
night we were able to attend a medal ceremony downtown. A lot of the other
nights we’d go visit downtown, because that’s where a ton of stuff was going
on. We were able to watch the jumbotron set up in the city to keep up to speed
on whatever key events were going on that night. Overall, it was very cool
stuff.
In some of the venues we were able to get super close to the athletes or tracks. At the biathlon we actually had to be careful, because we were close enough to get hit in the face with ski poles. Same thing with bobsledding…we could get close enough to reach out and touch the sled as it raced past.
I didn’t really think about
it at the time, but athletes from across the globe that participated in the
same sport had similar builds or strengths. Hockey players and bobsledders
tended to be large and muscular, while short track competitors tended to be a
little shorter with more slender builds. Cross-country skiing competitors
seemed to be consistently above average height, and figure skaters cultivated
grace and agility rather than a muscular physique.
I’m over 6 feet tall,
but under 200 pounds. A little bit on the lanky side, I’m physically better
suited to play first base or quarterback more than I am to be a catcher or an
offensive lineman. I’ve got more potential in the sports of basketball,
volleyball, or tennis than I do in the sports of wrestling, powerlifting, or
marathon-running.
If I were bent on
becoming a professional athlete, I could lament the fact that I’m not built for
success in certain areas, or I could try my best to be successful in the areas
where I could excel.
It’s the same thing
with serving Christ. There are some functions in Christianity where the role
has a higher (or more desirable) profile than others. If you’re built and
equipped for one function though, don’t lament the fact that you’re not set up
for success in another. There’s a reason you have certain tendencies,
attitudes, instincts, spiritual gifts, and interests. You were designed and intended to fill a certain
role; by focusing on fulfilling a different role, you’re actually detracting
from the one you want to escape and
the one you want to attain.
Don’t run away from the
role you were born to fill. Embrace it, then watch God work through you.
I’m gonna skip ahead a
little bit on our Olympic adventure.
My buddy and I woke up at a rest stop on our first day in Utah after snoozing in sleeping bags in the car. Our breath had condensed and frozen on the windows overnight. We were only about an hour away from Salt Lake City. After all the driving of the past two days, we were excited to be so close, so we got ready for the day and headed out.
Our breath condensed and froze on the car’s windows overnight
Just arriving in the
area was thrilling. Olympic signs and venues were all over the place. Ski
jumps, the Olympic rings, extra decorations, it was great. As we drove on the
highway through the city, a lot of the buildings were decorated with massive
posters of winter sports. We drove into the city, parked, and walked around
downtown, happy to be done driving long distances for a bit. The weather was
gorgeous; sunny and warm. We saw the Mormon Temple, some of the other local
sights, got some donuts, and toured the State Capitol, where there was a
traveling exhibit of the Declaration of Independence.
We were super excited
to finally be at our destination, but we still had to figure out where we were
going to sleep that night. A little after noon we drove out of the city and
toward some public land. As it turns out, the public land in that area is much
higher in elevation. Added elevation brings lower temperatures and more snow.
As we drew near the place we intended to camp, we stopped at a ranger station to get some more info. Following their directions, we drove until reaching the end of the line; past a certain point they stopped plowing the road. Snowmobiles were all over the place. The only other way in was on foot.
It’s on foot from here
My buddy parked the car
in the parking lot and the two of us broke out our cross-country skis. Between
the weather and the time of day, visibility was starting to drop and it was going
to start getting dark soon. We needed to find a campsite quickly, and we didn’t
have time to be too choosy about what spot to use. The two of us skied in, found
a spot, then skied back out to the car to grab our gear. We were both decent
skiers at the time, but neither of us had ever skied with heavy packs before.
They throw off your balance and make it much trickier!
We returned to our site and stomped down the snow to make a spot for the tent. We set up the tent, broke out the stove, and started heating up dinner while unpacking and arranging the rest of our gear for the night. Between not having much to do after dark and still being accustomed to East Coast time, we cracked open and tossed some footwarmers into the sleeping bags and were in for the night a little after 7:30 pm.
Just as a refresher, up
until this point in my life the only other time I remember sleeping outside was
in a tent in a neighbor’s backyard in the summer as a kid. Now I’m sleeping in
a tent in the Wasatch Mountains in February as the snow/sleet falls around us. After
sleeping in a car for the past two nights, it was a nice change to be able to stretch
out all the way. I slept pretty well until the coyotes started howling later at
night. For anyone accustomed to hearing them, you know that there’s nothing to
worry about, but if you’re not used to them, you start wondering just how long
it will take for a determined coyote to rip through a flimsy tent.
I’d be lying if I told
you that I wasn’t afraid of doing what we were doing. It’s one thing to talk
like you’re going to do something that stretches you, but it’s something else
entirely to do it. Driving from New York to Utah is an adventure in itself, but
at least during that whole time, you’ve got a car…with heat, a roof, and a
trunk full of stuff. Now we had a tent, sleeping bags, and whatever we could
carry in our packs, and we set up camp in a spot that, for all we knew, was at
the bottom of a mountain that was ready to trigger an avalanche. And it was snowing.
Why on earth would I do
this?
I was willing to do it
because this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. I refused to be left behind. I was
in college with few or no other responsibilities, the Winter Olympics were
happening in my country, I had the opportunity to go see them, and I had a
friend that was willing to do the same crazy thing. In the 17 years since that
trip, no similar opportunity has come around again for me.
For just a moment, think
about your life and the choices you regret. Often the things that come to mind first
are the things you did not do. For everyone,
even Christ-followers, there are things you wish you would’ve done differently.
Think about the choices that lie before you now, or that you’ll have to address
soon. One day you might pause to reflect on them, too. At different times in
our lives, everyone’s got a “thing,” an idea that nags at them even when they
try to shake it. Many times this is God’s nudge, saying “hey, I want you to do
this.” You probably don’t know what will happen if you do it. Maybe you do. Some
day you might be in Heaven, talking face to face with the creator of the
universe. “Remember when I prompted you to do that thing?” If you have regrets about not
doing something now, imagine what it
will be like then.
Don’t feel bad about
being scared; everybody’s scared of something. Letting fear stop you from doing
or being a part of big things is where you start missing out. Don’t let a fear
of being fearful paralyze you and prevent you from taking the next step that God’s
called you to take.
Refuse to be left behind.
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Ready to drive across the country to watch the Winter Olympics
This entry took place almost exactly 17 years ago (just two days off).
It had finally arrived.
February of 2002 was here, and the Winter Olympics had finally begun. My
college roommate and I had been working on a plot to head out to see some of
the Olympics in Utah for about a year and a half, and now everyone in our house
was watching the opening ceremonies on TV.
All the gear was bought
and (mostly) tested. We had our tickets in hand. The numerous little pieces
were all falling into place, and in a week or so we would embark on a great
adventure.
We made final
preparations for the trip and filled our professors in on what we were about to
do. We checked and re-checked details about the trip. In those last days before
heading out, we watched all kinds of Olympic coverage; it didn’t matter what
was on. The guys in our house, getting into the spirit of things, would even
watch Curling, which none of us understood. (“YES! Wait…so was that good
or bad?”)
As our departure date
drew near, we assembled all our gear, packing and re-packing it to see how to
maximize use of the space we had. Some of our stuff would be nice to have, but
if we couldn’t fit it, it wasn’t going with us.
The day finally
arrived. We loaded up my little car with all of the supplies we were bringing.
There was barely room for the two of us to fit. We left before dawn.
The initial drive took
us from Western New York State to Pittsburgh, where we switched to a larger
rental car. From there it was pretty much a straight shot out West along Route
80 to Salt Lake City. We were excited. This was really happening; we were
really doing this!
Twelve hours later, we
were bored out of our minds.
It was over 2,000 miles
and more than 30 hours of driving to our destination. America is a beautiful
place, but it’s kinda drab in February. Ohio wasn’t much to look at. Indiana wasn’t
much different. It got dark when we were somewhere in Illinois, and we weren’t
going to stop for another few hours. We kept going until we hit Iowa after 16
hours of driving on day one, where we eventually found a rest stop and slept in
the car overnight.
It seemed like the most beautiful part of some states was a higher speed limit
The excitement had worn
off. A day that began with such immense promise and electricity became dull and
mundane. All the different radio stations seemed to play the same songs. There
wasn’t much scenery to enjoy as we drove. You didn’t need to eat much if all
you did was sit in a car all day. We snacked on stuff, but it was as much for having
something to do as it was for being hungry. The highlight of the drive that
first day was stopping at a Wendy’s for dinner. “Will that be for the
dining room, or would you like it to go?”
“NO! The dining
room, please!“
The Christian life can
be exciting. When you see yourself being used to fulfill God’s purposes,
there’s nothing quite like it. It’s thrilling to go on missions trips, start learning
about a Bible study topic that hits close to home, read a book about a subject
you’ve been wanting to learn more about, or go so far as to start a new project
or effort that’s been tugging at your heart. There are going to be times in those
journeys, though, where it gets dull, boring, or even becomes downright
drudgery.
In a previous post I includede the phrase “go until you get a no.” The drudgery isn’t a “no,” it’s just a way for you to get worn down and an excuse for you to give up. If you give up on a herculean effort because you lose interest or get discouraged, you’re not giving God the opportunity to move mountains. God’s sense of timing tends to be different from our own. If you felt sure that He called you to take on a task, and you went so far as to get started on it, shouldn’t you see it through? Shouldn’t you go until you get a “no?”
Hang in there at least a little longer. God has a way of showing up at just the right time.
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