I have this holiday tin can in office that I have been opening and closing periodically this morning. I almost can't stop the continuous action of reaching for the tin, popping off the top, opening the plastic baggy inside and consuming the little peanut butter Ritz crackers dipped in white chocolate! So good! Every year around this time of year I receive a few gifts from very special people at Mt. Horeb. This year a few students gave me sweets, ornaments, EXPANSION PACK FOR SETTLERS OF CATAN!, tee shirt. It is such a blessing. I am truly grateful.
I am truly excited about 10 things...
1. Christmas time. Jesus, wisemen, Joseph, Mary... the whole gang.
2. A 4 day trip back to the Icy North with Jenna Owens.
3. Ritz crackers dipped in white chocolate.
4. Seeing old friends in Indiana.
5. Rachel Olshine coming home!
6. Giving my dad his porcupine fish attractor for Christmas. (Don't worry my dad has no idea what a blog is)
7. Having 4-wheel drive in the snow.
8. Andy Cunninghan coming to work at the Horeb.
9. My small group guys.
10. The possibility for a white Christmas at home.
I spent a few hours yesterday looking at Campmor.com at backpacking equipment. I am practically foaming at the mouth to do some backpacking. As soon as possible... this guys in the woods.
James 1:4 "Perseverance must finish it's work so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing."
I was reading James this morning and found this passage in James. Maturity is an amazing thing. I don't have much of it yet, but I want it. There is this funny connection between James 1:4 and 2 Peter 1:5-8. Without perseverance there really is no maturing that takes place. I want this passage to marinate for a bit. I feel there is a lot of good "flavor" here. So here is to perseverance! Hip Hip Hooray!
T
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
To respect nature or exploit nature... that is the question.
Genesis 1:1 "in the beginning God created..."
I stepped outside of my house this morning and was greeted by a beautifully warm December day in South Carolina. My days of the froze Indiana tundra are behind me and I like it fine that way. If I do not receive a certain amount of outdoor exposure or "my fix" each week I develop a sort of cabin-fever or maybe structure fatigue. Just today I was wrestling with the impulse to drive to NC and set up a tent for the night. It seems right to me to be in the wilds. To be able to walk through grass that comes to my knees, pump water from a running stream, gather wild blueberries to put into pancakes on a mountaintop morning, to sweat hiking a 10 mile stretch of Pisgah trails or squirm into a sleeping bag inside a tiny one-man tent. Why does this all feel so right??? Well it was created. It was created first. It's basic... it's our roots. God's creative nature spilled over into all we see today. God's creative order causes the world to work as it does. (where we have not somehow intervened)God creating is where we begin. So when I am with... in... a part of God's first creative outlet I sense a nearness with my creator.
Everything I experience in life, both good and bad are product from a previous "good" creation. Food was meant for us to sustain life, but we have turned it into a way to pass time and destroy our bodies. Sexuality, once created by God for us to enjoy a relationship between a man and a woman in the context of marriage... oh and populate the world, we have turned it into a multi-billion dollar business and a way to use and abuse one another. Creativity of our own... we have taken it and made movies and music that glorifies us and degrades anyone we can get our hands on. BUT FIRST AND FOREMOST... we have taken the creation itself and exploited it for our own monetary gain, to prove points, to indulge our own cravings. No I am the first to admit I am guilty of taken God's created perfection and twist it into something else... something "perverted", but that doesn't mean I HAVE to. Simply because I am exposed to food or outdoor wilderness areas does not mean I will automatically exploit and "pervert". On the contrary I think unless I am exposed to these things at all I will never have the choice to respect these things.
Without an experience in such areas of the created world as food, sexuality (in the right context and right arenas),creativity and creation we as humans will never choose to respect rather than exploit.
Genesis 1:26 "Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness, and let them RULE over the fish of the sea and birds of the air, over the livestock, over ALL the earth, and over all that creatures that move on the ground." (bold added)
The word RULE does not actually mean to control and exploit. In fact, it more accurately means to be responsible for. So, though I can go into Pisgah National Forest and camp out for a few days... I am responsible for how I treat God's creation. After all... how I love the earth is how I love God.
You are the solution to pollution,
Trevor
I stepped outside of my house this morning and was greeted by a beautifully warm December day in South Carolina. My days of the froze Indiana tundra are behind me and I like it fine that way. If I do not receive a certain amount of outdoor exposure or "my fix" each week I develop a sort of cabin-fever or maybe structure fatigue. Just today I was wrestling with the impulse to drive to NC and set up a tent for the night. It seems right to me to be in the wilds. To be able to walk through grass that comes to my knees, pump water from a running stream, gather wild blueberries to put into pancakes on a mountaintop morning, to sweat hiking a 10 mile stretch of Pisgah trails or squirm into a sleeping bag inside a tiny one-man tent. Why does this all feel so right??? Well it was created. It was created first. It's basic... it's our roots. God's creative nature spilled over into all we see today. God's creative order causes the world to work as it does. (where we have not somehow intervened)God creating is where we begin. So when I am with... in... a part of God's first creative outlet I sense a nearness with my creator.
Everything I experience in life, both good and bad are product from a previous "good" creation. Food was meant for us to sustain life, but we have turned it into a way to pass time and destroy our bodies. Sexuality, once created by God for us to enjoy a relationship between a man and a woman in the context of marriage... oh and populate the world, we have turned it into a multi-billion dollar business and a way to use and abuse one another. Creativity of our own... we have taken it and made movies and music that glorifies us and degrades anyone we can get our hands on. BUT FIRST AND FOREMOST... we have taken the creation itself and exploited it for our own monetary gain, to prove points, to indulge our own cravings. No I am the first to admit I am guilty of taken God's created perfection and twist it into something else... something "perverted", but that doesn't mean I HAVE to. Simply because I am exposed to food or outdoor wilderness areas does not mean I will automatically exploit and "pervert". On the contrary I think unless I am exposed to these things at all I will never have the choice to respect these things.
Without an experience in such areas of the created world as food, sexuality (in the right context and right arenas),creativity and creation we as humans will never choose to respect rather than exploit.
Genesis 1:26 "Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness, and let them RULE over the fish of the sea and birds of the air, over the livestock, over ALL the earth, and over all that creatures that move on the ground." (bold added)
The word RULE does not actually mean to control and exploit. In fact, it more accurately means to be responsible for. So, though I can go into Pisgah National Forest and camp out for a few days... I am responsible for how I treat God's creation. After all... how I love the earth is how I love God.
You are the solution to pollution,
Trevor
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Last Child in the Woods
Saturday morning I went to a seminar that was held in the auditorium of the South Carolina State museum... which is also home to two wonderful churches in our area. (Midtown and Church of the Apostles)A man named Rob Ribby (sp) was in town from a far off winter wonderland known as Wisconsin. He is a head honcho at a camp affiliated with Wheaton college called Honeyrock. Now Honeyrcok holds a special places in my heart for a few reasons. 1.) I spent 3 days there on a backpacking trip in Dec. at nearly sub zero conditions. Loved it! I was streched and challeneged and encountered God there in a way that only sub zero weather can. 2.) One of my heroes, Rob Bell, spoke for the first time on the shores of the lake at Honeyrock. (Velvet Elvis)So, when I heard Rob was coming to town all I could says was... "what time?". I was accompanied on the excursion with my trusty friend Heath Chambers... a fellow youth ministry major and outdoor leadership minor.
I can not honestly say the speaking at the event was stellar, but the content was pure lectured Gold. The things that were said are things that make my heart alive. A call back to nature and a call back to the widlerness. It isn't some kind of macho, mountain-man syndrome. It's a real awakening that happens to my heart when I connect with nature through wilderness adventure. Rob also mentioned how our lack of intrest in the woods has affected our children... particularlly middle school students. Our students have dropped the compass and backpack and picked up x-box controllers and laptops. What could possibly come out of this besides overweight children and socially disfunctional students. There is such a need to camp ministry. There needs to be a call to parents and families to get outside and experience all that the wild has to offer.
There is a book out on this subject entitled "Last child in the woods- saving out children from nature-deficit disorder". In the book Dr. Richard Louv reports that the area around the home that children are allowed to roam has shrunk 9 times the limit set in 1970. I am passionate about this need to reconnect with nature. I believe it is a large piece in understanding our relationship to God as crea-tor and us as creat-ion.Ok... I believe I have wornout my soap box. You can bet I will be back on it soon. Until then... go outside!
Trevor
I can not honestly say the speaking at the event was stellar, but the content was pure lectured Gold. The things that were said are things that make my heart alive. A call back to nature and a call back to the widlerness. It isn't some kind of macho, mountain-man syndrome. It's a real awakening that happens to my heart when I connect with nature through wilderness adventure. Rob also mentioned how our lack of intrest in the woods has affected our children... particularlly middle school students. Our students have dropped the compass and backpack and picked up x-box controllers and laptops. What could possibly come out of this besides overweight children and socially disfunctional students. There is such a need to camp ministry. There needs to be a call to parents and families to get outside and experience all that the wild has to offer.
There is a book out on this subject entitled "Last child in the woods- saving out children from nature-deficit disorder". In the book Dr. Richard Louv reports that the area around the home that children are allowed to roam has shrunk 9 times the limit set in 1970. I am passionate about this need to reconnect with nature. I believe it is a large piece in understanding our relationship to God as crea-tor and us as creat-ion.Ok... I believe I have wornout my soap box. You can bet I will be back on it soon. Until then... go outside!
Trevor
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