Archived posts from September 2006
okay, here is the mountain report....Brian and I took a few days off to relax and read and think and be together before a crazy October and November schedule.
day 1--Bear Lake to Nymph Lake to Dream Lake to Emerald Lake, 1.7 miles up, in 45 minutes without stopping, that’s pretty awesome if I do say so myself....then we climbed up into a couloir beyond and were in thigh high snow at one point, lots of fun coming down! then we laid in the sun and read our books for an hour, it’s so cool to be in winter at one point, and half an hour later be in a completely different season.
We then hiked to another lake, Lake Haiyaha, which I had never been to but the trail was very beautiful. Quite a distance of it was ice covered which made it hard to walk on, but then I saw some silly looking teenage girl doing it with FLIPFLOPS--she was having a pretty tough time, hanging on to the two guys she was with. (maybe that was the whole idea!) We were out 6 hours, did about 6.5 miles. I was tired after having been on BEAR PATROL all night before--see Brian’s blog for explanation of that and pics. www.brianzahnd.com
day 2--started at Bear Lake again, but went on a completely different trail, headed for Mills Lake, 2.5 miles--I consider Mills the most beautiful lake in the park. We walked on then towards Black Lake, which is also a favorite, another 2.5 miles, but somewhat impulsively, right before we got to Black, we went off trail bushwhacking 1000 feet straight up a mountain to a hidden shelf where there were two more very incredible lakes. (I had read to Brian about these lakes as we were driving this morning.) These are rarely visited due to their remoteness, but we will definitely be going back. It was TOUGH going up, but so worth it. I LOVED IT!!!!!!!! It was an indescribable experience. We had ice axes and used them going up--there were patches of slick snow and ice. I didn’t use it coming down because it was just too steep--the axe handle was too short, when I go back, I’ll definitely take a trekking pole, which would have been enormously helpful. Going down was not as tough as I was worried it might be--but I was using both hands and feet most of the way up and down. Then we hiked out the four miles, and I ran the last bit of the trail--I felt great! But now? I am hobbling around the room. My legs are jelly. I think we’ll take it a bit easier tomorrow!
day 3--(still thinking about yesterday ) Coming out of the thick forest, topping out and finding that huge rocky shelf with two huge lakes was a powerful spiritual experience. It was like finding an aspect of God you’d never known before. We’d traveled that trail to Black Lake several times, totally enjoying it, but never dreaming what lay just above us. I long to go back and explore more, to go farther. I’d do it today, but know we can’t....I can’t wait until next summer!
by Sheldon Van Auken
I said the last book, To the Golden Shore, wasn’t a love story. Well this one is. It’s the story of two intellectual atheists, highbrow poetic types from the East Coast who, having already fallen in love, go off to study in Oxford, meet C.S. Lewis, and become Christians.
Some cynics might think the declarations of love are a little on the sappy side. Made me think just a tad of Poe,
"And we loved with a love that was more than love, I and my Annabel Lee." Yes, and like Annabel, this match ended way too soon in an untimely death.
But the love they shared was real and lasting and very passionate. Those who would criticize are probably just jealous. I never tire of reading how anyone comes to faith in God and Christ, and their story is compelling, a long turning
together towards the light.
Many letters are exchanged between the two and Lewis, and published in the book. The account of her illness and death is a depiction of the scripture, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His holy ones." It is beautifully written, a holy memory.
I read this many years ago, and again just recently. Perhaps the passage that struck me the most this time was the description of the particular way he handled his grief, the systematic reliving of their few years together as he reviewed their journals, reread the literature they read together at the time, listened to the music they listened to together. He came to the realization that after death, TIME loses its grip on people, and they become timeless. No, they are not forever the age they were at the time of death, but they are ALL the ages they ever were. The child, the teenager, the young adult, none is further removed than any other. I have meditated on this a lot. Heaven is NOT populated by mainly old people and a few younger ones who didn’t get their money’s worth. Heaven is populated by AGELESS people--there will be no distinctions because we are all freed from the bondage of time. We can have divine fellowship with all, and the one who died as an infant will relate freely to the one who died a millennium earlier as an octogenarian. We will all be ageless, glory be to His HOLY NAME!!
This book is definitely worth reading, and again gets the FIVE STAR RATING!! * * * * *
The Life of Adoniram Judson by Courtney Anderson
Adoniram Judson was the first American foreign missionary, who went to Burma as a young man of 21. He lived a fascinating life--the book is as thrilling as a novel, but it’s a true story of a man who dared to do a great thing for God, and will certainly inspire anyone who reads it. I know I was directed by the Lord to this book, and it is still on my mind a few months and several books later.
The book was written in the 1950’s, less than 100 years after Judson’s death, and well researched and detailed. Judson was raised a PK, but lost his faith after going away to college. He became a Deist, to his family’s great horror--his mother and sister wailed and cried, saying "Now you’ve ruined heaven for us, how do you expect us to enjoy ourselves there when we know you’re burning in hell?" I got a kick out of that. A real family! Good religious folks! The concept of Providence is often referred to by Judson throughout his life--the arranging of circumstances by God for His purposes to be accomplished. The story of Providence bringing him back to faith gave me goosebumps--it’s too far-fetched to be good fiction, but it was TRUE!
Adoniram and his young bride of 3 days sailed for Burma, never expecting to see home or family again. She didn’t. They lived lives of great sacrifice, and Adoniram was imprisoned and severely tortured at one time for a period of several months. But there was no hint of a martyr’s complex here--they were happy and fulfilled people.
Adoniram had three wives, the first two died due to the extreme challenges on the mission field. After the death of Nancy, his first wife, and the two children they had together, he went into a severe grief/depression that lasted three years. He actually dug a hole at one point, his own grave, next to theirs, and wanted to crawl into it and die. As I saw the grace of God pull him through the slough of despond and bring him to a deeper, richer experience, I knew that same grace would always be there for me no matter what. He took a second wife who bore him many children, and they were incredibly happy. After many years, she died on the ship taking the family to America--his first return in 33 years.
His third wife was a real surprise--read the book to find out about her!
Adoniram penned these words as he was sailing home to Emily, that third wife, and passed by the place of his first wife’s grave:
I seem to have lived in several worlds; but you are the earthly sun that illuminates my present. My thoughts and affections revolve around you, and cling to your form, and face, and lips. Other luminaries have been extinguished in death. I think of them with mournful delight, and anticipate the time when we shall all shine together as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars forever and ever.
But this book was not a love story particularly--it was a
life story. More than anything else, I benefited by seeing that his life was not a snapshot of any particular moment, but a
life lived, day by day, to the glory of God. When all was said and done, it was the composite, that made his life such a beautiful success. Adoniram Judson lived a life worth living, a life worthy of the calling with which he’d been called. He fulfilled his destiny. I can’t wait to meet him someday, and I know I will!
RATING: 5 stars * * * * * (I might give all my reviewed books 5 stars, as I will probably only write about those I really like! I will review my best loved books, not in any order, just as I take a notion.)
When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else—something it never entered your head to conceive—comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side."
--C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
"The people who keep on asking if they can’t lead a decent life without Christ, don’t know what life is about; if they did they would know that ’a decent life’ is mere machinery compared with the thing we men are really made for. Morality is indispensable; but the Divine Life, which gives itself to us and which calls us to be gods, intends for us something in which morality will be swallowed up. We are to be re-made. All the rabbit in us is to disappear--the worried, conscientious, ethical rabbit as well as the cowardly and sensual rabbit. We shall bleed and squeal as the handfuls of fur come out; and then, surprisingly, we shall find underneath it all a thing we have never yet imagined: a real Man, an ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful, and drenched in joy."
C.S. Lewis, Man or Rabbit?
This stripping off of the flesh is precisely what happened to Eustace during an encounter with Aslan in The Voyager of the Dawn Treader, one of the Narnia books.
First entry! It should be very profound, an introduction to who I am. I have been meaning to do this for a while, but the technology kind of threw me. Okay, that makes me sound like a moron, which is not a very good introduction.
Today was Labor Day, which everyone knows is the end of summer. Last night, Brian and I went on a motorcycle ride, up to Conception Abbey. I can’t believe I’ve never seen it before. It was dark when we got back and we were cold. We were putting the bike in the garage when Gary, our next door neighbor, came in and told us Philip was up at the A’s and that they had called the sheriff because there was a guy who has attended the church who has mental issues parked out in front of our house spray painting his car--they were all walking and he asked them if this was where the pastor lived. He left just before we arrived, and the sheriff arrived a little later. Nothing happened, but we all ended up at A’s eating leftover lasagna. I’m sure some people would be very surprised to learn some of the things you sometimes putup with in the ministry. This morning we found ared "X" had been painted on the street in front of our driveway. We believe there are angels assigned to our house and our kids and our stuff and ourselves!
I walked 4 miles withVickie this morning, then when I came in, Brian said, "Why didn’t you ask me to walk with you?"He was grinning, knowing that I didn’t ask him because I ask all the time, and he always declines. So I said, "I’ll walk with you!" and went ou t and walked another 4 miles. My thighs are tired tonight. Good!
Then I finalized the purchase of my new washer and dryer which is blue, extremely blue! I’m stepping out! I made a trip to the paint store and picked out some new paint for the walls. I’ve been putting this whole thing off for way too long--the agitator is barely moving in the machine, and I bought the dryer used over 20 years ago from someone who bought it used! Like the children of Israel whose shoes didn’t wear out--have you ever thought how much you would hate wearing the same pair of shoes for forty years.
So now I’ve begun....and getting started is always the hardest thing.
