A few weeks ago I announced that I was embarking on a week-long media fast. The purpose was to get away and have a time of soul refreshment. For a while I had been feeling rather depleted on a number of levels, and I was sensing the call of God to come away with Him. Several months ago a college buddy of mine, Heath Goodson, invited me on a Canadian wilderness trip along with some guys from his church and a few other guys we had gone to college with. I was very intrigued by the idea and really wanted to go, but a few things unfolded at home, and when the deadline approached, I had to make a call and told him that regrettably I wouldn’t be able to go. I was bummed, but I just moved on. Fast forward about a month, and I got a message that someone had dropped out of the trip, and they had an opening for a guy to go. I started receiving texts and calls from my college buddies asking me to reconsider and encouraging me to come. By this time the issues on the home front that were a concern to me had resolved themselves, and I re-mentioned the trip to my wife who gave me her blessing to go.
So, on June 5th I flew up to Rochester, NY and joined up with my buddies James Dodzweit and Jonathan Schwandt, and the next day we drove up to Toronto, Canada where we met up with Heath and the guys from their church in Chicago. After a late night dinner and a brief time of sharing and getting to know each other, we drove 3 hours north of Toronto to Algonquin Provincial Park. On Sunday morning we put our canoes into the water. Over the next 5 days we paddled 50 miles and portaged (carried the canoes) 5 miles. It was a fantastic week of conversations and camaraderie, physical exercise, personal reflection, and enjoying the sights, sounds, and serenity of nature, the all of which climaxed in (ironically after the lack of sleep and all of the physical exertion) feeling so rested and quieted in my spirit.
I will share in future posts some of the lessons I learned during the week.
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