Bald Eagles and No See-ums (Lessons part 2)

Sitting at the water's edge of a secluded lake in the middle of nowhere at 5:30 in the morning all by yourself can be an amazing place to reset your busy mind. That is just what I was doing one morning on our trip to the Boundary Waters.

There is so much going on in my family's life right now that it feels like we're living in a blender.
I was just at a point that morning where I needed to feel God's presence. As I sat there, I read some passages of scripture and just prayed.

This is hard to say, but my goal with this blog is to be totally transparent, so here it is….

I prayed for a sign of His existence…...for Him to show me that He is real.
As I sat there watching and waiting, the most amazing thing happened…….

Nothing.

If you're reading this and you are a skeptic, you might be thinking to yourself,
"Ah-ha…see Tom, God isn't real."
And in response to that I would say, "Ah-ha….not so fast."

As I sat still and looked for Him and listened for Him for the first time in a very long time, nothing happened……and that's when everything happened.

In the silence of nothing, I heard the flapping of the dragonfly wings against the damp air.
In the silence of nothing, I heard the birds speaking to one another. I heard the scampering of squirrels and the splash from the fish catching breakfast off of the surface of the water.
In seeing nothing, I saw the morning mist rise through the towering pines. I saw the majestic soar of the Bald Eagle, and the flight pattern of the amazingly small "No See-ums".

I was sitting on the edge of a lake that was teeming with living creatures. My chair was on a gigantic rock formation shooting up from the soft earth around it, and I was watching a fiery ball in the sky, burn off the remaining morning fog.

How did all of this come to be? Who told the lake where to stop? Who placed the large boulder I sat upon? Who created the amazing Eagle? Who has ownership of the fine instruments used to create the infinitely small "No See-um"?

For me, I find that it is not the absence of the truth of our Creator's existence, just the suppression of it.

God knew that it wasn't a sign that I needed.
God knew I just needed to slow down and be still.

Sometimes we just have trouble hearing and seeing God because He is EVERYWHERE.

That morning, I was revitalized and I have felt a nearness to Him that I have not felt in a while. I have a new passion to drive forward in my endeavors that have made life like living in a blender for my family.

My family and I will have time to rest in eternity.

May you come to see that God is real. May you hear Him. May you see Him, and may you realize that God is EVERYWHERE.

Toe tag (lesson from the Boundary waters part 1)

Last week some friends and I were up in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. This place is so remote that there are no roads in, you can only canoe to get where you want to go. We stayed on an island the first night.

Pretty awesome stuff.

Depending on how far in you go, you may not see another human being the entire time you are up there. This means that your cell phone is completely useless.

No T.V.

No newspaper

No radio

No information whatsoever.

World War III could start and you would be utterly clueless.

When we got back to civilization, I was glued to a T.V. at Famous Dave's reading the ticker tape across the bottom of the screen to see what had been going on in the world for the last 5 days, and all of a sudden it occurred to me.......The World has gone on without us.

I know that sounds egotistical, but it really made me think about a couple of things.

1.) When Mother Teresa passed away, the World stopped.

2.) When Martin Luther King Jr. died, the World stopped.

These two people were just human like you and I. They possessed no special powers. They were just ordinary people who chose to live extraordinarily and when they were removed from the planet, it mattered to the whole planet.

So this is what I thought about on my way home from Famous Dave's....

Are my family and I living in such a way that there would be a void if we were gone?

1.) Would our neighbors be sad if we moved?

2.) Would our church feel a loss?

3.) Would our town be affected in any way?

4.) Our state?

5.) Our country?

6.) Our world?

If we are living the way Jesus calls us to live by loving our neighbors, putting others before ourselves, and being generous with what has been given to us, then there will be a void when you go.

If we can't answer yes to any of the questions above, then we need to examine how we are living.

Sooner or later we all get a toe tag. The question at that point is going to be:

Who is it going to matter to?

The Portage

So the guys are going on our annual canoe trip to the Boundary Waters tomorrow. Last year we spent the majority of our time on 1 lake and just took a couple of day trips to some other areas. In the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA), there are literally thousands of little lakes. The issue is that there is land in between them, so in order to get to the majority of the more secluded lakes where the good scenery and good fishing is, it requires work. You have to load all of your gear into packs and someone is going to be shouldering the canoe for possibly a mile or so until you hit the next lake. This is called a portage.

Last year we did 2 of them.

This year we are doing 38!

We caught some good size fish last year and we had a nice relaxing time, just talking and paddling around our lake, but this year we are being called to a bigger adventure.....an adventure that will be sure to bring us better fish and better stories.

Here is the thing...

I think God is calling us to do the same thing.

Most of us are just comfortable in life. We might get challenged once or twice and we think that we have really accomplished something if we meet those few challenges, but when the few challenges are over we are just comfortable spending the rest of our lives paddling around and talking to our friends.

God is calling you and I to the bigger adventure, but it means that there is work to be done.

God is telling you that there is better scenery if you are willing to put in a little effort...if you are willing to step out of your comfort zone and start your adventure.

God is telling you that you might have caught a few nice size fish, but you haven't seen anything yet.

There is something in your life RIGHT NOW that God is chasing after you to do. What is it?

What is it?

To quote my favorite movie of all time (Shawshank Redemption), "Get busy livin, or get busy dyin'"

I hope today you choose to take more portages, take the road less traveled, step out on faith and see if God does not simply amaze you with some huge freakin fish and an amazing new perspective.