Since moving to California Allen and I spent two and a half years wandering around California and the Pacific Northwest. We took Thanksgiving trips to the coastal redwoods and weekend jaunts to the Sierra Nevada range. My last birthday was spent exploring the northern California coast. For those years I lived in a sort of chaco clad fairy tale. It was a fairy tale of trying to fit in and paying insane amounts in rent and flying home for Christmas (and funerals - too many funerals), but at the end of the day we were only four hours from some of the finest scenery our nation contains. And once a month on average we went off and snapped pictures and climbed trails and feasted our souls on God's creative generosity. Now it's my turn to sit and watch my Facebook feed as other people dash off on trips to Yellowstone, Canada, and D.C. Once again I'm trying to be content in my circumstances.
And that's the rub. We bought a new house, remodeled, bought a slew of furnishings... It's been a good year. By any account we are blessed beyond our merits. And yet I'm sitting here confessing that I still struggle with being content. Because when you've got an apartment in California your itchy feet can carry you away most anytime. Now I've got a house in Alabama, and when you've just sunk a bundle, it's 95 in the shade, and the mosquitoes are biting you end up staying at home organizing your C.S. Lewis collection. But my traveling feet are itchy and longing for an evening spent around a campfire sipping hot toddy and watching the moon rise.
I don't think there's any conclusion I can draw here. God calls us to contentment. I struggle with it. Sometimes I struggle because I'm not settled and don't have a home, and sometimes I struggle because I'm feeling too settled. As Shakespeare said "Man is a giddy creature," and I'm as giddy as any. This is my confession.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Most beautiful place on earth
I found this video and really had to share it. It's from a group of artists who hiked the John Muir trail for a month (how I wish I had that time) and spent their time recording all the sights and sounds of the trail along their way. I've hiked far too few miles in these mountains, and watching the trailer I can almost smell the trail.
So here's a glimpse of everything that makes my heart sing when I wake up in the mountains.
P.S. If you liked the video consider donating a dollar (or ten) via their kickstarter page to help them finish this project. I certainly plan to help :)
So here's a glimpse of everything that makes my heart sing when I wake up in the mountains.
The Muir Project - Range of Light from The Muir Project on Vimeo.
P.S. If you liked the video consider donating a dollar (or ten) via their kickstarter page to help them finish this project. I certainly plan to help :)
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Families without roots
A while back I stumbled on a the adventures of a traveling family, and by traveling I mean a little more than two weeks in July. This is a family that lives year round on the road traveling all across Asia and who knows where. I have to admit, after years spent hitting the road, their lifestyle seemed attractive if a little impractical, but after some more consideration I've concluded that for Christians such a lifestyle is probably better avoided. While I don't believe my objections carry significant moral weight, I do believe my reasons are largely sound.
1. Who is your neighbor?
When you're traveling all over the world/country/continent it has to be hard finding church communities wherein you can grow and learn to serve your neighbor. Suppose you speak English and Spanish and are spending a month in Korea? Where is your fellowship? Too many Christians are already going to church with a shop around, consumer mentality for me to think lightly of people voluntarily entering a situation that will drastically limit their opportunities for corporate worship. If we're going to actively love and serve and encourage and challenge each other that requires an investment in time you won't get if you're constantly moving on. While I'm not at church every single Sunday, I am there most Sundays. I grew up church hopping - going to one church for a few weeks or a couple years and then one Sunday just not going. I've got a lot of memories and no friends from those years. Fast forward to shortly after Allen and I met. For ten years (on and off as we've moved away and come back) we've been part of one church and one denomination. I've got roots here. There are kids here that I met at babies (or even attended their baby showers). Even if I don't know everyone so well as I would like, there's a history here and a form of faithfulness that we all come together and put up with each other. I don't really see how you can get that when you're always moving from city to city.
2. Where is your family?
While there are a few people who may be doing this without leaving grandparents, aunts, and other extended family behind that's not the norm for more families. There are siblings and parents and cousins and others who should have a place in your life. So maybe your kids have splashed in the Tigris and the Nile. Maybe they speak a little Mandarin or a have a favorite German street food. Is that more important than having a grandfather who taught them to build a fire on their first camping trip? Is it more important than the great pillow fight of '09 between your kids and your sister's kids? What about the Christmas Uncle Joe let them light bottle rockets? Do grandmothers not color in picture books anymore? The Bible is pretty big on taking care of family, and that's hard to do when family is on a whole different continent. You might not see Argentina very well in two weeks, but at least you'll be teaching your kids that love of people and duty towards family comes before treating life like some egoistic pleasure cruise.
3. What about your stuff?
This is probably going to sound like the least Christian objection. After all, if we're going to Heaven then working to earn a bunch of stuff seems kind of pointless. Except that God says it's not. Throughout the Bible God praises the wise and the diligent - the who seeks to lay up and inheritance for his children and who gives generously to the poor. When you seek a lifestyle that allows little for charity but gives you lots of "freedom" and "options" the main recipient of your generosity is yourself. We have a God who loves to give us good things, and some of the things might weight down the carefully curated selection of personal items in your L.L. Bean backpacks. That's ok! Stop spending your life focused solely on what you want to get out of it.
With all that said I love the idea of people traveling together as families. I think it's a huge blessing and a wonderful way for families to enjoy each other. I just think there are ways to travel that don't involve neglecting our duties to our families and to God. My family used to see a lot in nine days of RV travel. Some people might be able to take a month. I'm all for it. I just don't think it's wise for Christians to emulate this sort of vagabond, world traveler lifestyle. To me it smacks of egocentricity and a willful avoidance of the sort of productive community life I believe God desires for us.
Caveat: I realize that some of my objections can apply to foreign missionaries, and I don't want to sound like I believe long term life away from one's family or in an environment the necessitates few possessions is always wrong. Missionaries in many ways pay a high price for their service. The drawbacks are real, but the commission is also real.
1. Who is your neighbor?
When you're traveling all over the world/country/continent it has to be hard finding church communities wherein you can grow and learn to serve your neighbor. Suppose you speak English and Spanish and are spending a month in Korea? Where is your fellowship? Too many Christians are already going to church with a shop around, consumer mentality for me to think lightly of people voluntarily entering a situation that will drastically limit their opportunities for corporate worship. If we're going to actively love and serve and encourage and challenge each other that requires an investment in time you won't get if you're constantly moving on. While I'm not at church every single Sunday, I am there most Sundays. I grew up church hopping - going to one church for a few weeks or a couple years and then one Sunday just not going. I've got a lot of memories and no friends from those years. Fast forward to shortly after Allen and I met. For ten years (on and off as we've moved away and come back) we've been part of one church and one denomination. I've got roots here. There are kids here that I met at babies (or even attended their baby showers). Even if I don't know everyone so well as I would like, there's a history here and a form of faithfulness that we all come together and put up with each other. I don't really see how you can get that when you're always moving from city to city.
2. Where is your family?
While there are a few people who may be doing this without leaving grandparents, aunts, and other extended family behind that's not the norm for more families. There are siblings and parents and cousins and others who should have a place in your life. So maybe your kids have splashed in the Tigris and the Nile. Maybe they speak a little Mandarin or a have a favorite German street food. Is that more important than having a grandfather who taught them to build a fire on their first camping trip? Is it more important than the great pillow fight of '09 between your kids and your sister's kids? What about the Christmas Uncle Joe let them light bottle rockets? Do grandmothers not color in picture books anymore? The Bible is pretty big on taking care of family, and that's hard to do when family is on a whole different continent. You might not see Argentina very well in two weeks, but at least you'll be teaching your kids that love of people and duty towards family comes before treating life like some egoistic pleasure cruise.
3. What about your stuff?
This is probably going to sound like the least Christian objection. After all, if we're going to Heaven then working to earn a bunch of stuff seems kind of pointless. Except that God says it's not. Throughout the Bible God praises the wise and the diligent - the who seeks to lay up and inheritance for his children and who gives generously to the poor. When you seek a lifestyle that allows little for charity but gives you lots of "freedom" and "options" the main recipient of your generosity is yourself. We have a God who loves to give us good things, and some of the things might weight down the carefully curated selection of personal items in your L.L. Bean backpacks. That's ok! Stop spending your life focused solely on what you want to get out of it.
With all that said I love the idea of people traveling together as families. I think it's a huge blessing and a wonderful way for families to enjoy each other. I just think there are ways to travel that don't involve neglecting our duties to our families and to God. My family used to see a lot in nine days of RV travel. Some people might be able to take a month. I'm all for it. I just don't think it's wise for Christians to emulate this sort of vagabond, world traveler lifestyle. To me it smacks of egocentricity and a willful avoidance of the sort of productive community life I believe God desires for us.
Caveat: I realize that some of my objections can apply to foreign missionaries, and I don't want to sound like I believe long term life away from one's family or in an environment the necessitates few possessions is always wrong. Missionaries in many ways pay a high price for their service. The drawbacks are real, but the commission is also real.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Cold Toes and Warm Memories
Yep, I should be finishing up packing for our trip, but in the course of checking the weather I unearthed a memory I just wanted to splotch up on the old blog for everyone to see.
So when you're planning for two trips in one (a vacation in one place followed by a conference in another) things like exactly how many sundresses you have to have for the beach and whether your wool coat is strictly necessary for upper 40's weather become rather important because it's times like these you realize that even "light" packers can rapidly run out of luggage space. On one hand you really want to bring that cute sundress, and on the other hand you really don't want to be standing around San Francisco freezing your knees because some bright eyed male (aka the species that doesn't admit to cold) mistook when the bus would be stopping by your corner. But, as I pointed out to Allen, if this were Yosemite in late October after a long evening's drive up through the mountains I'd probably be jumping around in my jeans and chacos and a lone cotton sweatshirt complaining about the cold and too excited to stop and put on warmer clothes because the payoff is climbing into your nice warm down sleeping bag and pulling on some thick wool socks and listening to the wind and feeling the cold air on your cheeks as you snug your sleeping bag up around you and reflect on what a very nice thing it is to be the luckiest girl in the world. Or maybe you're reflecting on that one rock that managed to hide out under your back. Same thing :)
So when you're planning for two trips in one (a vacation in one place followed by a conference in another) things like exactly how many sundresses you have to have for the beach and whether your wool coat is strictly necessary for upper 40's weather become rather important because it's times like these you realize that even "light" packers can rapidly run out of luggage space. On one hand you really want to bring that cute sundress, and on the other hand you really don't want to be standing around San Francisco freezing your knees because some bright eyed male (aka the species that doesn't admit to cold) mistook when the bus would be stopping by your corner. But, as I pointed out to Allen, if this were Yosemite in late October after a long evening's drive up through the mountains I'd probably be jumping around in my jeans and chacos and a lone cotton sweatshirt complaining about the cold and too excited to stop and put on warmer clothes because the payoff is climbing into your nice warm down sleeping bag and pulling on some thick wool socks and listening to the wind and feeling the cold air on your cheeks as you snug your sleeping bag up around you and reflect on what a very nice thing it is to be the luckiest girl in the world. Or maybe you're reflecting on that one rock that managed to hide out under your back. Same thing :)
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