Taking Small Steps

It’s in the smallest of ways that He chooses to lead us so we can take the smallest of steps to get somewhere big

Taking the small steps God gives us to take is about trust . . . and it’s relational to its core. 

It isn’t a “to-do” list of things God wants from us.

This is not about getting from point “A” to point “B” as efficiently as possible.

If it is something I have already learned and am still learning is this:

Anything human will always be messy 

That is why all of this is relationship and is at its core, relational. It isn’t about accomplishing a new goal we have set for ourselves. It isn’t even about the things itself that we are to do or accomplish when it’s time to. 

It’s always about relationship.

The second we take that out of how we live our lives is the moment we have taken out the “life” that gives us contentment and fulfillment in our lives. 

It is relationship with our Creator that gives “life” to our life. 

He gives us small steps through stirring certain desires in our hearts . . . or by giving us ideas to try new things or do things a different way than what we see or are used to. 

He places promptings in us to take action or He gives us a sense of direction where He wants us to head that gives us vision for the future. 

But it is always through and in our relationship with Him and with those who He has placed around us in which we are stirred and prompted and moved to taking steps.

It’s in the smallest of ways that He chooses to lead us so we can take the smallest of steps to get somewhere big. 

We aren’t to struggle or strive or manipulate our lives. 

We were not created to. 

In our attempts to control everything is where stress and fear breed. 

It is in relationship with God and trusting Him alone where we find true freedom . . . freedom to live like we have always wanted to live.

When we are faced with challenges or darkness, we find that if we have built a relationship with learning to trust Him before those hard times come, we will depend on Him during those hard times.

God doesn’t lead us to the next steps in our journey with a list of things we need to get done. 

He stirs us patiently and with desires and passions and feeds a fire deep within us through encouragement and truth.

It is His Spirit within us that leads us and guides us through a sweet a steady communion with our hearts . . .

It is here where we find our journey unravel.

Here with Him where we find our life.

If He has our hearts trusting Him, He has our lives to lead towards the journey He has for us to take.

Forward on.

Shaped By Adventure

I don’t know if we have become naive to the wildness of God’s heart or if we have just become numb in how comfortable we are obsessed with being

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“It’s a dangerous business, walking out one’s front door.”

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 Isn’t it funny, the very things that scare us are the very things that mold us into who we are today?

The very opportunities we rationalize just so in order to remove the uncertainty of what seems daunting to us causes us to miss the very ways God uses to bring abundant life to our door step.

It is a grand invitation God gives us, offering a chance to be removed from our many built comforts and engage in the real and tangible world awaiting beyond the fanciful fences of safety.

    Bilbo’s reaction to Gandalf comes to mind from The Hobbit when he offers Bilbo Baggins the opportunity for just this . . . a way out beyond himself and into something bigger.

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“The world is not in your books and maps . . . it’s out there.”

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We have been taught our entire lives to be “safe.” From the best of well intentions from our mothers or wives or even friends . . . because they don’t want harm to come to us or at least avoiding the possibility. For good reasons to be sure do we tell each other these same things . . . to be “safe.”

We live in a fallen and dark world so there is a dire need for safety and to have a sense of caution.

But to what extent . . . and to what end?

Where would this path of “safety” lead us if not away from the dangers of true adventure?

    The irony is we tend to lean away from the very thing we actually desire.

We long for adventure, yet shun what it brings with it . . .

Risk . . . uncertainty . . . pain.

Of course we aren’t typically scared of the joys and excitement and grand memories made when living out adventure for that is attractive to us always.

But it isn’t those things at all that keep us from it either.

I have been told so many times to “get out of your head” or “stop over-thinking things, Chris.”

Why is that?

Am I that intelligent that my brain just cannot turn off?

Or is there something else at work here?

Could it be that I have had some long and wearisome miles through the years of pain and disappointment that have caused my defenses to be engaged just so that my mind has fired my heart from taking the lead?

In those moments where I may need to “get out of my head,” could it be that it’s because I simply do not want to be hurt the way I have been before?

Yes, with adventure comes pain. There is no getting around that.

    Me and a buddy set off to go kayaking down a river we had never been on before so we didn’t know what to expect or the risks involved.

As we were walking alongside the river looking for a good place to launch off from, I prayed a very simple and to-the-point type of prayer.

“Father, I want an adventure. Give us an adventure today. Let us have an adventure with You.”

That was it . . . all I prayed.

I almost drowned that day, at least that is how it felt when I experienced . . . well, almost drowning.

In terms of me actually being in danger of actually dying by suffocating under water, I think it is safe to say God knew I wasn't going to just like Jesus knew the disciples were not going to drown during the storm they had found themselves in long ago.

But, it definitely felt like I was going to die that day.

I found myself getting sucked into a hydraulic effect as water poured on top of me down a man-made break that looked like a mini-water fall.

My buddy had no idea what was happening because he had fallen out of his kayak as well and made it to shore because he had a white-water kayak and I had an open-water hybrid not meant for white water.

We were not expecting to run into what we did.

I was not expecting to almost drown like I did.

The Lord saved me that day as I cried out to Him literally to save me.

That is the adventure that He gave me?

Yes.

    I don’t know if we have become naive to the wildness of God’s heart or if we have just become numb in how comfortable we are obsessed with being.

Either way, we don’t know what true adventure is.

We just don’t.

Like children we want things now, easy, and perfect.

We don’t like to get messy and we don’t like pain.

That’s fine if you want to stay a child your whole life and live accordingly.

But if we want to be molded into all God has for us, we must embrace adventure for all it comes with.

Uncertainty is what shapes us.

Pain is what shapes us.

Imperfection is what shapes us.

Risk and learning what courage is in the midst of fear is what shapes us.

Adventure shapes us.

    God has an adventure for each one of us our entire life if we let Him lead us into them.

Look around right now at your life.

Is it what you expected it to be?

Life is full and plentiful of adventures as grand as God’s heart is and as true as the sun rises.

We are shaped by adventure.

So embrace your life . . . your adventure you are in right now . . . because it may be closer to you than you think it is.

(quotes used from the film, The Hobbit)

Striving For Imperfection

Here these guys had just spent who knows how long working on these routes to challenge us climbers and I end up being the guy who misses the whole point of it all

    A few guys were sitting around near some rather large tool boxes just talking and watching other climbers at a local rock climbing gym I train at. I didn’t think too much about them or even the out-of-place tool boxes lounging there other than just some guys hanging out.

Then I overheard someone who had just gotten off their shift working there at the gym mention the bouldering wall in front of her had just been reset.

As I heard that and glanced over at the particular wall she was talking about, I noticed the rock grips were more colorful because they hadn’t been chalk-worn like the ones they took the place of on the wall.

Having new routes is pretty exciting after a few months of tackling the same ones each week, so needless to say, I was excited about having new routes to explore. I probably spent about a good 3 or 4 minutes looking at the different routes determining which one I would attempt first, fighting excitement as I tried to focus. In rock climbing jargon this would be considered finding the “beta” of the route . . . gathering information from it in its difficulty, where the crux is, and what moves would work best to finish it. 

The route I ended up choosing challenged me in just the right amount of technique and strength, demanding I mixed it with good balance as I worked my way to finish it at the top. After I jumped down off the top and stood there watching someone attempt a route they chose, it finally hit me.

Those guys sitting around next to the tool boxes were the route setters who had literally just finished resetting some of the bouldering walls.

Suddenly I had a genius idea.

So I turned and asked them if they had indeed reset the wall. Of course they said they did, so I continued my inquiry and asked:

“Did y’all see me climb that route?”

One in particular responded and said he had watched me.

I then asked, “Did I do it right?”

He continued to say with a smirk, “Well, you finished it . . . so you did it right.”   

Why do we do that? Why do we look for something wrong in something already right? It has been called being a “perfectionist” or even saying things like, “I just want to get it right.” There isn’t anything wrong with that, but when it makes you miss the whole point?!

I felt so dumb . . . 

Here these guys had just spent who knows how long working on these routes to challenge us climbers and I end up being the guy who misses the whole point of it all.

    I was watching a Youtube video right now about a guy who free-climbed the climbing route called The Nose on the legendary face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. As I watched it, I realized something.

Nobody cares if this guy did it “right.” The documentary only depicted the insane amount of determination and daring it took to accomplish ascending almost 3,000 ft. up through 31 pitches to finish the climb.

He did it, and that’s the point.

How many times do we do that in our own lives?

The guy who climbed The Nose free-climbed it . . . meaning he was not harnessed into anything. So basically if he fell, nothing would keep him from plummeting about 3,000 ft. down to his death. You think anybody would call him out on a few minor “wrongs” after doing something incredible like that? We miss the point of what we are facing because it just doesn’t seem right or feel right or doesn’t seem to be working out in the way we think is right. How many times does that cause us to pre-maturely give up at what we are being asked to face?

Honestly, if one of those guys told me I had done it wrong, I would have sadly counted that as a failure even though the fact of the matter is I got to the top. That route was designed to give me enough challenge as to discourage me from getting to the top, yet I reached the object of accomplishment.

Take some time right now and think about . . .

    -What is that thing God has put on your heart to face in a relationship or work environment or bad habit?

    -What is that something that He has challenged you with . . . something you know you can’t do perfectly . . . but He is still asking you to take some steps regardless of what you can or can't do?

    -Now ask yourself if you are making it harder than it is? 

    Are you getting in the way or overcomplicating it because it doesn’t look like what you think it should look like when you take those steps?

We cannot get distracted by the “route” in which life ends up becoming for us.

In climbing, the more you hesitate to make a move you know is the next necessary move, the faster your energy depletes while you think or analyze it. When that happens, if it is a hard enough next move, you risk not having the necessary energy to provide enough strength to complete it. It is like that in the way we are obedient to God’s leading. 

God never asked for perfection . . . in fact that is exactly why Jesus had to die on the cross so our imperfection could be covered by His perfect blood.

I imagine our loving Father looking at us and just saying, “Son, I’m okay with the fact that you don’t ever get it perfect. I want you to be okay with it now.”

What great freedom we would find and absolute relief we would feel when resting in the fact that we don’t have to get it perfect.

We just have to get to the top of whatever it is we are climbing. Sure it matters how we get there, but God gives us mercy through forgiveness and Grace through Jesus to empower us. So let us not get so hung up on our shortcomings along the way when He is calling us to trust Him to help us finish a route in our life.  

Whether that next step He is putting on our hearts seems big or even small, we just have to take on that route God sets for us and climb our best.

He does the rest.