It's Happened

Blogs are a funny thing sometimes. You think about who reads it, who randomly trips upon it and who you really reach with out knowing... Hmmmm... With these things in mind I feel that a blog can both help and hurt in many different ways.

Reading back upon many of my entries I have noticed how vague I am about my personal self. I only speak of situations and distant thoughts and write upon those walled up emotions. Why? So I can keep this bodacious life of mine a mystery from the rest of the world? Or to protect myself from being vulnerable? Or to simply just find it exhausting to speak in detail all the time. To just touch upon little things instead of the entire picture. To not suck you in....Hmmm I think I'll go with the first excuse.

Well my friends, times are a changin' and I have news for you- I am on the verge of something big. I am in the midst of a journey that unfolds everyday. Some days more quickly than others but it is still a very "hilly" journey.

I am putting this body in motion, I am cycling across the United States of America this summer. Yes. I am riding not a gnarly, loud, "protect your children from this beast", of a motor cycle. When I say cycling I mean bicycling. Yes a little gear, self propelled sit on the saddle with your stereotypical bike shorts (that I am still trying to get past the feeling of wearing a diaper because of the butt padding...Yes butt padding), peddles and water bottles. Picture me riding along with my helmet. Pretty rad, right?

Don't call me crazy. This isn't about me.

Venture Expiditions is a non-profit organization that helps provide campaigns and awareness for various causes all over the world. I will be leaving Seattle Washington on June 10th. From there we will be cycling through towns and communities to help spread awareness and perspective on issues for our JUST:HOPE mission. To help bring justice and hope to the oppressed in Southeast Asia. Issues like human trafficking, child soldering and slavery.  We sleep in churches, homes and tents while stopping off at rest stops and grocery stores spreading the word and speaking to families, communities and who ever asks. We will be speaking in church services and in many other places as God speaks through us. I say "us" because I wont be doing this alone. Currently we have 13 people on the team and our goal is 16...So... If you're interested by all means, get your butt in gear and Apply!

We will be traveling for 8 weeks until we reach New York City. Along this entire route we will be raising awareness and asking for funding. If I'm honest, it's all a bit nerve wrecking but it's worth it because it's for those who are unable to have a voice currently. For those who are afraid to speak, and for those who don't even know what they're doing is wrong. Venture's Blog is where you can view the ministries that are building and growing to help the people we are trying to reach. It also informs you more to who will be riding on the tour this summer. Not only for JUST:HOPE but for other causes too. All the funding raised goes to and help the cause, going to those in need in SE Asia!

This is where I am going to really blow your mind, ready?

This t-shirt was designed specifically with the JUST:HOPE Northern Tour in mind by Rand Renfrow. And guess what! You can totally get a hold of your own radical fashion while helping us raise money for our trip with a minimum donation of $20! All proceeds go to the campaign for the JUST:HOPE Northern Tour. The t-shirts are made in the U.S. completely slave free, in a little town called Boulder Colorado where two of my team members currently live.

 If you make your donation $25 I will for sure make you the radest friendship bracelet you will ever see!

However if you up your donation to $30, well, You will get the t-shirt, a bracelet and a really awesome surprise sent to you! I can't tell you what it is though... It would ruin the surprise!

Take notice though that these shirts are a separate fundraiser than our online donation tab where you can also donate funding in my name (Separate donations). So if you are interested in the t-shirt fundraiser, please send a check to me along with your t-shirt size. It will make life a lot more simple in this respect.

Tell your friends tell your family!

Get ready for this wild ride!
It will be a big good step in another direction of this Blog, I feel. A step that I have been very hesitant to take for a while now but it is something that is bigger than me and bigger than what this blog was originally for. This is indeed a tool that I can sharpen to help so much more than just those who have enjoyed reading some stuff that I have pieced together through these various seasons.

Adventure with me.

Winded

" The fast have spiritually slow hearts."


" 'Where ever you are be all there', is only possible in the posture of Eucharisteo. I want to slow down and taste life, give thanks, and see God." -A Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskam


Maria Taylor Plays as my thoughts flow, ignited by words...


My rushed heart forgets to be thankful. This is true loosing sight of where I am meant to be. Where God has us and why. Why we are in these seasons and seeking and being in the beauty while we are actually there. Instead of looking back upon it. Or looking forward to it.


I'll mention it again, "Where ever you are be all there". Slow down and let it in. Put the pen and paper down instead of letting the ink smere on your nose while studying and focusing on what still needs to be done. What still needs to be checked off.


If God wills it.
Plans...If God wills it.
Relationships... If God wills it.
Destinations... If God wills it.


But God is willing what we are currently in. This moment IS Gods will. While my attitude often twists it in my mind. Constant guessing games. Be all here. Know God now. Not long to know God tomorrow. Know Him now. Today is the opportunity.


 Right now I've realized more than ever how thankful I am for today. For waking up rested, excited to write and read Gods words, interpreting it to how I currently see it.


139
7 Where can I go from your spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?


I feel at times I personally become distracted. But He never leaves us. What if we want to be tested? What if we seek hardships to stay humble? Can that really work?


139:23-24
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious heart;
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.


Kick back to Verse 5


5 You hem in behind and before, 
and you lay your hand upon me.


What blessings come from these things. These hard things that teach us so much. It is all on your watch. It is all that you understand and us wishing we did, Lord.


6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.


This is amazing. This might sound crazy, but even the worst things, the hardest most uncomfortable hardships are indeed amazing... But now as I write that, are they? I mean if God wills it, it must be, right?


Praise God. These words are amazing and way out there when it comes to anything in the social norm. God keeps providing and this is me writing reminders to help that joy to soak in and drool upon others. The greatness and glory belongs entirely to God.


Go ahead and read it again...

Some of the thousands...

A Great Blue Herron in the creek as the delicate rain falls in early morning hours.

Singing songs about trees while waiting with family.

Kids laughing.

Warm feet under a sleeping bag.

An email from a dear colleague.

Today.

These possibilities are endless and exciting. I don't even know to what I am referring these choices to. Life I guess. These transitions.

I enjoy the unorganized thoughts that go from my head, down my arm making a transfer to ink and then traced on paper. The perfect cure. A formula that has so many different ingredients, so many different remedies. To write is to explore. To explore is to take chances. To take chances is to trust. And to trust is to know that this is a real situation. This is raw and loud. Even though sometimes it whispers. We whisper honest things about ourselves wondering if anyone else can hear these thoughts because they echo in our heads.

Too loudly sometimes, reverberation, breaking down walls to truths and weaknesses. How many times have I had a D.T.R. with myself? Level of commitment to being honest? What about it? Is it real? If I'm being honest, it's hard to be honest. But here is the first step to being freed... Be honest.

Hebrews 4:7
"So God set another time for entering rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted- 'Today when you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts'."

We struggle to keep focus... True focus forgetting these things.

Job 8:7
"And though you started with little, you will end with much".

Be encouraged...
"Do hard things"
Face the worst...Even if, at times, it might be ourselves.

Thoughts on a Whim

Sun warms my skin like Christ warms my soul. While a bee hovers over top keeping a friendly watch.
I feel, at times, I become lost in this stunning sea of creation. Falling forward, to quickly overwhelmed by the smell of leaves dead and alive. The distinctive sweet smokey smell of pine needles.
I sit back upon Ponderosa Pine. It holds me, it hugs me. Like a good friend does. There are moments of light and there are moments of darkness. But these places feel safe. These places feel home.
This is where it feels best. Out here in the vast vegetation of natural inspiration. Feeding and building upon this playground of thoughts, prayers and stillness.
The breeze...The breeze helps creation wave in the midst of joyful arms that are lifted up in constant praise. These arms of trees...Branches.
Forever grateful for being created for a purpose.


It's amazing what, "practicing the pause", can really unlock, breaking away bits and pieces of these man made stone walls.

Births and Deaths

 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

New Living Translation (NLT)

 ¹⁶ So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! ¹⁷ This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
 ¹⁸ And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. ¹⁹ For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. ²⁰ So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” ²¹ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,^[a] so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Births and deaths. There are new things that happen in our lives that cause rebirths of realizing Gods love and our need for knowing and feeling Gods love. There are also deaths that mark the ends of pieces that we used to be. All these things happening in this small tiny sprint called life to do our best to neither gain or loose that love that God pours upon us.

There was a birth yesterday, among the trees. Among the tall trees of Doug Fir, Red giants and spunky Pines. My feet move swiftly upon the earth with company as we laughed and jumped on duff. Getting lost, following tracks as they bend around mountains and switch back and forth. Smells of steel, coal and Ponderosa Pine. I am distracted by the vibrant greens and browns that shimmer from glory rays through tree tops. Beautiful.
 Jetting off the tracks to run and explore massive trunks and stumps like curious kids we were created to be. Glory to God in the highest.

This tent was hugged into the creation that is always new yet so old. But constantly being rediscovered. Being born into different seasons and perspectives. New eyes... Revivals.

There are deaths too... But all of it comes to this:
I am a new creation. Because of all of these things I am made new. Everyday.

Blank Pages

I picked up a new mole skin today. I looked at it as I sat back into the car and thought about how this little book simply just does not have enough pages. Thinking back upon how quickly I filled my last journal I jumped to a thought of racking up millage for marathon training. Once you get past a certain number, the numbers don't really matter. It's about endurance. But what does it matter? Running or writing? There are not enough pages in this little black book. Looking towards the collections on my dresser of little books with words in them. Many, many words.

There will never be a little book big enough to hold all the words that bleed onto each page. These books are temporary. Just like this tent. Writing in this little black, soft covered, lined book seems so meaningless when you have such little room.
Isn't that the same as life though? We put ourselves into these edged boxes of criteria. But it's what we do with what we create inside of it. It's what bursts into life from just thoughts developing into plans that then become actions and then experiences.

These blank pages have plenty of potential... Let's get started.