Why would a 40 year old out of shape man, desire to trek 5000 miles to Alaska? What is it that cries out within his heart? Alaska, it is a vast land full of rocky coastlines, enormous mountain ranges, mosquito filled tundra as far as the eye can see. Glaciers calfing into the deep blue ocean projecting enormous icebergs. It is a deep green sea of pines splaying out as far as the eye can see. It is a land filled with wonder, filled with awe and filled with danger. Where a man or woman can be tested in the fullness of their being, and it is for this that I long for. It is, in a sense, like the One who created it Himself, God. To vast for any one man to contain, to dangerous to traverse alone, for in Alaska we are not at the top of the food chain. It is something so much larger than myself and truthfully it is a manifestation of all man's and women's longing for God Himself and our answer to our eternal prayer, Let your Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.
So, I invite you into the depths of my adventure, on my Dream quest to find my soul, to find myself, to test my self to the depths of my being and to hopefully find "what it is that I'm looking for!" Which is ultimately God Himself. To discover the wonder of His creation and perhaps through my own feeble efforts to feel something deep in your own Spirit rising up...it is THE CALL OF THE WILD!, welcome it with warm, inviting arms and you never know where the Spirit will lead you...
Tim
My friend, I hope that you encounter G_d in a fabulous, refreshing and profound new way during this adventure. Your search immediately made me think of this quote by Robert Ruark in Horn of the Hunter: "There was nobody around but me and a million animals and a thousand noises and the bright sun and the cool breeze and the shade from the big trees that made it cathedral--cool but a lot less musty and damp and full of century-old fear and trembling. I got to thinking that maybe this was what God had in mind when He invented religion, instead of all the don't and must-nots and sins and confessions of sins. I got to thinking about all the big churches I had been, including those in Rome, and how none of them could possibly compare with this place, with its brilliant birds and its soothing sounds of intense life all around and the feeling of ineffable peace and good will, so that not even man would be capable of behaving very badly in such a place. I thought that this was maybe the kind of place the Lord would come to sit in and get His strength back after a hard day's work trying to straighten out mankind. Certainly He wouldn't go inside a church. If the Lord was tired He would be uneasy in a church."
ReplyDeleteShalom
Awesome quote, and that is exactly where I am sitting...:) Where God would go to get away from it all
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