Guys, generally speaking, are terrible at deep friendship, and I am the chief of sinners in this regard. I have a lot of friends, but very few close friends. I long for such friendships, but I’m a dude, and I suck at them. When asked what our goals were for our spiritual retreat, one of the things I wrote down was camaraderie. I was really looking forward to some “man time” with the fellas – my college friends Heath, Jonathan, and James, specifically. This trip did not disappoint.
Catching up on life over the past 18-20 years, praying for one another, paddling until our arms felt like they were going to fall off, encouraging one another as we took turns portaging 50 lb. canoes on our shoulders while also carrying 50 lb. backpacks, laughing at dumb guy jokes and noises until …
(What is this strange moisture on my eyeballs?!),
sharing our stories of struggles and triumphs until …
(Gosh, I’ve got something in my eyes again. Do you see anything in there?!),
and seeing each other naked bathing in the lake until …
(Dude! I swear I must have styes in my eyes, they burn so bad! I can’t open them anymore! The burn is so deep!!!),
relationships were deepened, lifelong friendships were formed, and more than likely our minds suffered scarring.
I was reminded afresh that life is not meant to be lived in isolation, and adventures are meant to be shared. The great joy of life is experiencing it with others and creating stories that will be retold years down the road. The great challenge of life is to remember that we are not the only ones who struggle on this journey. We know this in our heads, but we need to risk experiencing this truth by opening up our hearts and being honest with one another. As the great C.S. Lewis said, “Friendship is born at that moment when one man says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought that no one but myself …’” (The Four Loves). Going on a trip like we did created a space in which we could all say, “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself …”.
A month and a half ago I went on an awesome trip with some friends to the Canadian wilderness of Algonquin Provincial Park. When I returned I had to really put my shoulder into our missions trip. Now that I am past the trip, I wanted to share some lessons I learned/was reminded during that experience.
The first lesson is this: Nature nurtures the soul. I need nature. I need times of detachment from the busyness man’s creations to be present in the serenity of God’s creation. The impressiveness of mans creativity pales in comparison to the beauty of God’s creativity. There is just something about being out in nature that is healing, life-giving, and centering. One day, while on the trip, I opened my Bible and spent time meditating on Psalm 23:1-3 which reads, “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.“ There is a lot of beautiful metaphor here, but I would suggest that there is tremendous power in literally being in green pastures, quiet waters, and traveling along paths. Being in nature contemplating God and life makes the metaphors come alive.
While I can’t always go up into the Canadian wilderness, I can find time and space during my weeks and days to spend a day at the beach, go for a walk in a local park, or even just sit on my porch for a few minutes and look at the trees and flowers and bugs. How about you?
The quote below, in my opinion, accurately describes my life in God. The more I get to know Him, the less I realize I know – about Him, myself, and life. The more I know, the less I know, and the more faith I need. Selah.
“After a big route in the Alps, I always think I know myself, know exactly who I am. It is only above 8000 meters that I realize again and again just how little I really do know about myself and my body, myself and the mountain.”
Excerpt From:
Ed Viesturs & David Roberts. “The Will to Climb.” Crown Publishers, 2011-10-04. iBooks.
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“It’s easy to die for Christ. (My Insert: And, as my friend Duffy Robbins adds, You can only do that once, and it usually occurs right before the end of your life.) It’s hard to live for Him. Dying takes only an hour or two, but to live for Christ means to die daily. Only during the few years of this life are we given the privilege of serving each other and Christ … therefore we must not waste the opportunity.” – Sadhu Sundar Singh
Got this via Facebook today. So good and so true!
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