For Granted...

I am so blessed.

I grew up in a home where there was always food on the table.
I have eaten too much (many, many times).
I have been angry at my parents (because they kept me from doing things that would hurt me).
I had pets growing up.
I got to go to school.
I was forced to do my homework.
I had lots of toys (but didn't get everything I wanted).
I went to church almost every Sunday.
I went to college.
I sometimes buy things I don't need.
I always have just enough money leftover for the things I do need.
I have a cell phone.
I can call my parents whenever I want.
I have a bed.
I have a microwave.
I have a car.
I can change my clothes five times before I decide what I'm going to wear.
I can look in my fridge and decide nothing looks good, then order a pizza.
I can drive down the road and pick up a gallon of milk.
I have too many blankets.
My parents still make me call sometimes to tell them I made it home alright.
I've been overseas.
I've traveled to 18 different states.
I had to to homework until 2am some nights while I was in college.
I can run.
My friends are only a phone call away.
I get to teach kids about God.
I can go to church on Sunday morning.
I've thrown away food.
I've eaten an apple that I picked off a tree.
I've seen a moose in the wild.
I have seen more beautiful sunsets than I can remember.
I have drank water that came from a gorgeous lake in the boundary waters.
I had to pay $106 for a doctor visit.
My computer had to get fixed a month after I bought it.
I have five lakes within walking distance that I can swim in.
I woke up this morning.
I can flip through the channels on my TV and not find anything to watch.
I have air conditioning in my car, my office, and my apartment.
I have a car, an office, and an apartment.




Hey all. If you happen to read this post and make it this far, I would like to request that you post a comment and add your own list. It should be things that you are able to/have to/get to do that may seem insignificant, but are little reminders of just how lucky and fortunate you are. God Bless - pass it on.

Afterthoughts...

So, I'm home now, I've been home for three full days, I've been back to church, and more or less back to normal (although I still haven't had a full day back at work - soon). It was strange how long it seemed to take to reacclimate myself to normal life this time - I have done my fair share of wilderness and camping trips, although this one could perhaps win the prize for most rustic for the longest amount of time. Is it having lived a very simple life with so few people for a full week, or is it having been gone the bulk of the month of July on vacation and trips? I'm still not really sure about that one.

Life at home seems more or less on a regular track...I have spent most of the last three days holed up in my apartment though...partly out of laziness, partly out of wanting to read (and finish...YAY!) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I think I spent 5 hours today finishing it...give or take...at least 4 hours. Now I wait for others to finish so I can actually talk about it to them. Bah.

Tomorrow (well, today I suppose as it is 12:30am) is my first full day back to work...should be a quiet week. I will be tying up loose ends from the canoe trip, answering e-mails, and getting reorganized so I can start thinking about the upcoming school year a bit more. I head off - again - the end of this week for a couple days, as there are kids at Good Earth Village Camp this week, and I want to make an appearance there. Then I think the last big thing I should have for the summer is a personal trip to the Twin Cities for a weekend for a music festival with some friends.

I have a sermon to get ready for this weekend, which I am excited for despite the fact that I really haven't put a ton of thought into it up to this point. I know that the text is on the Lord's Prayer, and also contains the ask-seek-knock passage that is so familiar (and is one of my favorites). I'm excited to start reading through the commentaries, as I already have some vague ideas in my head about where I want to go with it, again, strange, as I haven't read the text in close to a month. So we'll see.

As far as thoughts on the trip now that my brain has had time to process...I think I have to call it largely a success. Wilderness trips are not without their struggles and difficulties, and I think we handled ourselves pretty well. Talk about the trip seems positive, and I think the kids came back with the feeling that each of them did things they wouldn't have considered themselves capable of doing. In my book, that's positive. I think very few trips occur where there is no drama, so all in all...yeah. It was good.

Build me up, Buttercup.

Readjusting - part 3

Tuesday - This is where I stopped keeping a regular journal, so this is mostly going to be from memory. The girls were getting tired, and over the course of the day, it was pretty evident that we needed some time for the girls to just unwind and relax. It was our second longest paddle, from Spice to Ogish, to Jasper, to Alpine, and to the west edge of Seagull, where we would be spending the bulk of our time. We got to camp relatively early, so we had lots of time to cool down and chill. We swam for a while, and then had mandatory nap/quiet time, and then did some solo time. Our campsite was amazing - the one corner of it was a big rock, and the GL was a good quarter mile from the main campsite. We had our quiet time, and got to think about what it means to listen for God's call, what joys come from it, and what struggles come from it. Here is what I wrote: (I think I'm better at writing than speaking.)

Listening for God is more than sitting in a room by yourself waiting for Him to come to you. Instead, it is a willingness to open yourself up to the possibility that God is present where we are. It means changing our perspectives and accepting the reality that we are already instruments of God - able and ready to do His work.

Listening to God means accepting responsibility when we feel ourselves being directed toward a need that must be filled. It means being willing to step outside our comfort zone and realize that we must fill the need whether we have the gifts to fill it or not.

Joy in the calling comes when we find ourselves strengthened to the point where we are able to fulfill our calling. God makes us capable of rising to the challenge if we only believe we can.It is easy to become overwhelmed when we look at the tasks set before us. However, what can be even more frightening is realizing we are able, or even willing, to rise to the challenge of a need that we know we cannot fill alone. Yet we still feel an undeniable need to do so. We are frightened by what we might discover, and come to realize that we have not been living to our full potential.

Look at the ripples that your foot creates when you step into a great body of water. Only then can you begin to understand the extent to which God is able to use you. Your actions will reach far beyond what you would imagine possible.

Finishing reading to the group was a lot of stares and "wow's", I guess I kinda thought that might happen, but I really felt called to say it, even though I wasn't looking for praise. I spent my solo time away from everyone else, down the shore farther on a rock away from the group.

One of my favorite metaphors was one Laura made - the picture of silence as a pregnant woman, then something beautiful is birthed of it. Bonhoeffer had a lot to say about silence too, and often mentioned that some of the most beautiful and profound sayings came out of silence.

The evening was a glorious but tense one - bipolar, if you will. Supper, or part of supper was not received well by the group - Mac n cheese, fry bread (a different kind), carrots, and cheesecake. Everyone ate the mac and cheese, but the fry bread was rejected, as was the cheesecake. That led to a lot of argument and frustration on the part of the girls and the leaders, and our lactose intolerant and milk allergic leaders ended up eating most of the things that had milk in them. Yikes. We headed that night after bringing our supper with us up to watch the sun set, responded to by one of the girls by saying, "what, it's just a bunch of clouds and sun..." It really was gorgeous though. We finally finished out the evening, and began the journey to what would be probably the most difficult day of the trip.

Wednesday - Rock climbing day. We began the morning on the wrong foot...a lot of arguments and complaints about the breakfast for the day...malt o meal. No one wanted to eat it, which frustrated the leaders yet again, and the girls...what a way to start the day. After many arguments and eventually packing out two cups of the stuff, we were on our way. We cruised over to find a campsite, and after unsuccessfully checking some of them, we ended up back at the first one we stopped at, and then packed our day bag for rock climbing. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves there, and were challenged and pleased with their success. We got back to camp, washed off a bit, and then the leaders headed off for water. It looked like rain, so our job was to set up camp and get things taken care of.

This was the testing night. I was left with the group of girls to set up camp, and one of our number didn't like that idea. So, after an interesting talk and some exchanged words, we went on in silence. It took the better part of an hour, but we eventually got things squared away, and the girls got the night off...acting like nothing had happened. Laura and Maren and I opted to make supper ourselves so as not to create more drama, and it was a WONDERFUL night. I got a chance to bond with the leaders and laugh some, and so did the girls. We spent a long time staring at a 5 legged grasshopper, a dragonfly nymph skeleton, and the water. Sunset that evening was amazing, and we spent the better part of an hour on a rock talking before the mosquitos took over. It was a good end to the evening, and we went to bed with the knowledge that it could be a very early morning - watching sunrise at the Palisades...which meant getting up and packing up camp at 4am. Ew.

Thursday - the final day. We ended up not getting up that early, it was pretty cold and looked cloudy. We got up around 5 and packed up camp, and then headed back for our last paddle. Back at camp around 7:45, we unloaded packs and canoes, cleaned them, and after a few more quarrels, finished our work. We scrubbed canoes, liners, and packs, put lifejackets and paddles away, and then took our gear up to the brigades. We packed some, took showers, and did debriefing, then went to the camp store. After many long goodbyes, lots of pictures, lots of laughs, and a surprise candy bar present :) , we loaded up and departed...a bittersweet end to the trip.

We stopped in Grand Marais for a pizza lunch at Sven and Ole's, and then headed for the journey home. It was pretty uneventful, and we were all happy to be on our way back to our homes and beds. Everyone seemed to have had a wonderful week despite the polarity of reactions and comments that came out of it, and comments of "I rock climbed FOR REAL this week" and "I learned how to portage a canoe!" and "I saw six moose!" were heard throughout the SUV.

It was a wonderful, stressful, beautiful, tiring, growing, unbelievable week.

And I even made it home without being tired. (Then I crashed...and probably slept more in two days than I did all week.) :)

Readjusting - part two

Sunday - Day one out on the trail. We woke up bright and early for breakfast on our own that morning (cold cereal, rolls, and apples), and got ready to head off. We brought our packs down, put our extra stuff in the brigades, and got fitted with life jackets and paddles. We headed down to the beach for some paddling exercises, and then learned how to portage the canoes together (the group was really good at this!). After learning a bit about the Boundary Waters themselves, we loaded up, got our paddling buddies, and took off. Oh yeah! I almost forgot - another had joined our number - Maren. She was volunteering for a few weeks, and because we had a smaller group, she came along with us. After a slow start as we learned how to stern and bow the boats, we cruised on to our first campsite, one of the longest paddles we would have on the trip. The route for the day consisted of heading across Seagull, the biggest of the lakes we would be in (and the one that camp is located on), then on to Alpine, Jasper (where we stopped for lunch), Kingfisher (the puddle jumper!), and Ogish, where we stayed the first night. Tensions were high that first day as the girls tried their hand at paddling and portaging for the first time, our first ratings for the trip (one at a three out of 10), and some tears and frustration at the other members of the group. I think most of that was just simply an adjustment to the difficulties of canoeing after a couple days of very laid back camp life. (On a side note - I, who had never before solo portaged a canoe before, did it FOUR times that day! The guides couldn't believe I'd never done it before...go me!!)

We survived though, and made it to our campsite, where we set up and then enjoyed the water for a while. One of our girls decided to try the lifejacket diaper style, which entertained all of us for a long time - between her looking like a flower or some strange bug, and watching her try and get out of the lifejacket while she was still in the water, we spent a long time laughing and snorting until our bellies hurt.

Evening meal was chicken and dumplings, probably the most successful out of the week's meals, and the one where we worked most as a group. Chicken mess, buiscuit like fry bread, and brownies for dessert. We ate like queens and cleaned our plates. We cleaned up, had a bit of a rainshower, and did Last Word sitting together on a rock in the water, ending the evening in silence. A couple crabby girls, some challenges to the authority, and a night of cramps for me, and we made it to morning.

Monday - A gorgeous morning. I sat on a rock by shore for a while and watched minnows eating water bugs, listened to loons calling, and peered up at a cloudless blue sky. It was another adventure, of course.

It was an easy paddle on Tuesday, as we didn't have very far to go. We got up, packed up camp, and made breakfast of pancakes and applesauce. It was a bit of a tense morning, but nothing we couldn't handle. We got back on Ogish and headed to Spice Lake, just a teeny lake off the north shore of Ogish. We set up camp, which was easily one of the more exciting parts of the day - as we were setting up our tents, Laura came over and started making wild motions at us to be quiet and follow her - our setting up had startled a mother and two baby moose into the water, and we watched them swim across the lake. Soooo cool. We also saw two of the biggest spiders I've ever seen on a log along shore, and a frog, and some strange tube creature...not sure what that one was. Then, almost immediately after packing a day bag, and headed for Eddy Falls in two canoes, 4 people each. The route for the day was Spice, Ogish, Annie, Jenny, and across part of Eddy Lake - the falls was between South Arm Knife lake and Eddy. We ate lunch by the falls, and then hopped into the water, cold, but very refreshing. We played for a long time in the pools, splashing, showering, walking around, and snapping pics. Everyone was at an 8 or better - some even at 10's.

We headed back and did a silent paddle and two silent portages, where I learned how to do a two person lift without talking. We headed for Ogish and met some fishermen on the way to the "Jesus Rock" - a rock that just broke the surface of the water right in the middle of the lake. When Laura asked them where they were from, they said southern MN, crazy. But, where in southern MN? FAIRMONT. Weird. A Franzen, and a Makala or something like that - what are the odds!?! We talked to them for a while, they took our picture, and we headed back to camp. We picked tent groups and put on dry clothes and then started supper. Only a couple outbursts from one of the girls this time, otherwise, a fairly calm evening. Supper was stroganoff, hashbrowns, and no bake cookies. We rounded out the night with back rubs and did Hot Seat. then, off to bed.

Alright, in an effort not to have this post be all you can see on my page, I'm going to break this up again, and start with Tuesday on the next post.

Readjusting...

Two days after returning from the boundary waters, and it still feels strange to be back in civilization. I can't remember feeling like this the last time I took a trip of this sort, perhaps because it was too long ago, or perhaps because this is one of the longest stints I've done in one shot of very rustic camping. I am beginning to understand Laura's comments about it being hard to remember to flush toilets (neither the camp, and defininitely not the campsites, have flush toilets, they're all latrines and GL's (government latrines - wall-less latrines). And I can't imagine doing that for a summer, I noticed a culture shock after one week. It makes me want to experience that way of life for longer - there is something powerful about realizing how little one can actually live on.

Now some more background - I just spent the last seven days in the boundary waters northwest of Grand Marais, MN, with a small group of girls on an adventure trip. We left last Friday and returned on Thursday - it's going to feel weird to go back to work tomorrow and again on Tuesday. I'm going to do my best to tell the story of the trip here, and recap each day as well as I can remember it.

Friday - I woke up at 3:50 am, my goal being to get ready, grab my last minute things, and pick up one of the girls on the way to the church to meet the rest of the crew. I left my apartment at 4:27am, picked her up, and was at the church a little after 4:30. The girls showed up one by one, and after hugs, well wishes, and a prayer, (we had packed the trailer the night before - an act of pure genious) we actually made it out of town by 5am...my goal. We watched the sun rise over I-90, and stopped in Albert Lea (our first bathroom break of many). One of the girls found a moth that entertained us for a bit, and then we embarked on 4 hours up I-35. We made it past the cities, stopped for gas and grabbed some breakfast in Wyoming, MN, and headed for Duluth. It only took us 5 hours to get there - and then we were off to Grand Marais, about another hour and a half. We stopped in Grand Marais for lunch at Subway (where I learned to back up the trailer), and then took a little time to call parents to let them know we'd made it that far, mostly because cell phone coverage was uncertain the rest of the way up, took a step into Lake Superior (captured on my digital camera), and then phoned the camp to let them know we were on our way. We took off up the Gunflint Trail, and a roadside potty stop, three moose, and an hour and 20 minutes later, we arrived at the camp as rain started to fall. We met Laura, our guide, and loaded our gear on a pontoon and ourselves into a Northland canoe, and paddled to the main camp. We gathered ourselves and our gear and headed up to our cabin - Beavertail. After claiming bunks, we headed off to Pinecliff, where we played Apples to Apples until supper, had a delicious pasta meal, and then went back to the cabin. We had Last Word that night in the form of a Bluegrass version of the Holden Evening Prayer service...bleah. A cool concept, but not well executed...the leaders didn't know the whole thing well, and none of us knew it at all. We headed back to the cabin, and chatted a little about the next morning, then heard a story about Agate the Moose, and went to bed (or at least tried...the girls weren't tired because they'd slept on the way...I, on the other hand, was exhausted after being up for close to 20 hours).

Saturday - Next morning was First Word bright and early at 7am...then breakfast, then orientation. First was Health orientation, then Nature orientation, then Swim and Swamp - where we learned how to get a flipped canoe righted and brought back to shore. We dried off and headed to lunch, ate, and then helped with dishes. We were about to start our work day (finally), but then it started to rain, so we helped out in the kitchen for a bit instead. The rain subsided after a while, so we headed up to one of the former buiding sites to clean and pick up the rubble, and after about an hour at that, it started pouring. We ran to one of the staff cabins and sat on the floor, where we ended up laughing so hard we were crying after telling stories of the previous night's excitement - one of the girls talking/walking in her sleep and looking for plug-ins that she and her sister couldn't find - and asking Laura for help. Eventually, the sun came out again, and we finished up in time to head to supper, with hopes of a dip in the lake afterwards to wash off the layers of soot and dirt that we had accumulated. Our plans changed a bit after learning we were going to do the Bluegrass worship again, so rather than a dip, we headed down to the dock to wash off faces and legs and arms instead. Then it was back to the cabin to pack, and sleep to be ready for the next morning.

Installment one...more to follow tomorrow.

Nothing Special...

I jot notes down a lot as I listen to sermons on Sunday morning. Here are a few of my scribblings:

Discipleship - it sometimes means no place to hang up your hat, or even no hat to hang - in fact, you may end up hanging on a cross as [Jesus] is about to do...

Don't hide behind other people's expectations if you commit to following Jesus.

When's the last time you asked someone how their faith is today?

* * * * * * * * * * * *

If we know who holds the final hour, we don't need to be anxious about the next moment.

You are the light of the world...and of your church...

Church Lighting

Several centuries ago in a mountain village in Europe, a wealthy nobleman wondered what legacy he should leave to his townspeople. He made a good decision. He decided to build them a church. No one was permitted to see the plans or the inside of the church until it was finished. At its grand opening, the people gathered and marveled at the beauty of the new church. Everything had been thought of and included.

It was a masterpiece. But then someone said, "Wait a minute! Where are the lamps? It is really quite dark in here. How will the church be lighted?" The nobleman pointed to some brackets in the walls, and then he gave each family a lamp, which they were to bring with them each time they came to worship. "Each time you are here' " the nobleman said, "the place where you are seated will be lighted. Each time you are not here, that place will be dark. This is to remind you that whenever you fail to come to church, some part of God's house will be dark."

That's a poignant story, isn't it? And it makes a very significant point about the importance of our commitment and loyalty to the church. The poet Edward Everett Hale put it like this:

I am only one,
but still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something I can do.

What if every member of your church supported the church just as you do? What kind of church would you have? What if every single member served the church, attended the church, loved the church, shared the church, and gave to the church exactly as you do? What kind of church would you be?

* * * * * * * * * * * *

I get something every once in a while through my e-mail called 'sermonfodder' that I believe is put together by a pastor and sent out once a week or so. Usually there is a funny story or set of quotes and then a more serious story, and this just happened to be on the last one I received.

I read through it a couple of times and found it very profound, not simply because of the image it presents, but because of how convicting it is. I am a very firm believer that a person does not truly get all they can out of their church life until they actively participate in the ministry that goes on there. That doesn't mean that they have to spend all of their free time volunteering, but simply that they take an active role in something that they have gifts in and contribute to those that they share with in the church family.

However, I also found it convicting for another reason. "What if every member of your church supported the church just as you do? What kind of church would you have? What if every single member served the church, attended the church, loved the church, shared the church, and gave to the church exactly as you do? What kind of church would you be? " This last part said almost more to me than the entire rest of the story. Though I am not a pastor, I am still a church ministry leader and play an active role in the life of the church. A couple of Sundays ago, my pastor preached a sermon and made a comment towards the end that referenced keeping people accountable for their faith. He added that sometimes it is hardest for him in that respect, because as a pastor, most people don't question his faith life on a regular basis. That really hit home for me, primarily because I have found myself so wrapped up in "doing church" that I ignore my own personal faith. That's not to say that I shut everything out, but simply that I don't take the time I should to look at and understand how the things I am seeing, doing, and hearing are impacting my own spiritual growth.

Here is a call to everyone, churched or not, leader or not - to take time for yourself. But don't stop there. Through finding ourselves, we then find out how that "self" fits in to the world around us. Take time to kindle your fire, and then add your ember into the great and glorious fire with those around you.

The week in review - back to the homeland.

As I typed the title of this blog I chuckled to myself - I guess back to the homeland refers both to my heading to Fargo for the 4th and to my current perch in a Caribou coffee shop on the way back home. I spent the last days driving all over central and northern MN and ND, and oh what a glorious journey it was. The trip began with a trek to Sibley State park near New London, MN - the second annual summer camping trip with my friend and I. We camped from July 1-4th, and it was a bit soggy for most of the trip. That didn't stop us, however, from finding plenty to do and enjoying ourselves a great deal. Fishing, biking, cooking hobo dinners, spying on turkeys, getting the heck scared out of us by whatever woodland creatures were lurking in the trees surrounding our campsite - a well rounded trip. The rainy days were spent poking around Spicer, playing cards at the top of Mt. Tom, watching movies, and taking a peek at Green Lake Bible Camp, where we enjoyed tremendously the lillies planted outside the offices.



Another highlight of our camping trip trip (or mine at least...) was finding (and catching!) a skink (little somewhat snakelike lizard, for those of you who were wondering...) on a walk at a nature center we stopped at. It managed to do a pretty good job of frightening my friend, who is afraid of snakes and thought that's what she had seen, after which I went looking for said snakes and found the two reptile friends. After seriously considering the possibility of a new pet, I let the scaly visitor return to its home and went on my way.

On the morning of the 4th of July, we packed up camp and headed for Detroit Lakes, where we spent the afternoon with a friend of ours (and one of my former coworkers) and their family at a lake home. (There were a buttload of cops out that day due to the area we were in, and also the date, and I managed to get followed by an unmarked cop for the better part of a few miles.) I made good use of the water trampoline, tubes, and lake in general, and despite not putting on sunscreen (an incredibly stupid move...can we say lobster), had a wonderful time. I even got to do some waterskiing (which I hadn't done in 2 years or so), and managed to get up on the 4th try. After some lunch and goodbyes, we headed up to Fargo, dropped off our stuff, and then headed over to the park for a picnic of fried chicken. Yum. Being in the park was an adventure in itself - owing to the beautiful weather, everyone else in Fargo appeared to be there also. We staked out a spot and chowed down, and even got some dinner entertainment - a family next to us was shooting fireworks right in front of three parked cop cars - not a smart move as it is illegal within the city limits.

The fireworks that night were great - they shoot them off in Moorhead at the college - so it's basically a field and stadium full of people watching together. Some really awesome fireworks too. We rounded out the night with slushies, and headed home to bed.

I spent the last two days running around Fargo/Moorhead - getting a haircut, visiting friends, having lunch dates, helping my friend out at work, and just enjoying myself. Friday night - my last night in town, was at an amazing jazz concert put on by some of the Fargo South High kids - it was wonderful. Then, Saturday was time to go home - but not before a stop in the Twin Cities to see a friend of mine, and a stop at home to share the fudge I'd bought at the Russel Stover Outlet in Owatonna. MMmmm.

So thus ends my crazy road trip - 7 days and 850 miles later. What a ride. I think I need an oil change now...once again I've reached the miles faster than the time... :) But what a great reason to have done it.

Now, off to the Boundary Waters... :D