Go and Find It!

(Mt. Shuskan, WA  8" x 10" study in oil)

Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem called "The Explorer"  describing that elusive "something" that compels an adventurer on..."Something hidden.  Go and find it.  Go and look behind the Ranges-----Something lost behind the Ranges.  Lost and waiting for you.  Go!"

To some of us, that is an irresistible invitation to the open road and adventure!  To what lies beyond...to the lure of the unknown!  Kenneth Grahame sums it quite well and humorously in The Wind in the Willows when Toad cries, ..."The open road, the dusty highway, the heath, the common, the hedgerows, the rolling downs!  Camps, villages, towns, cities!  Here today, up and off to somewhere else tomorrow!  Travel, change, interest, excitement!  The whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing!"  

(North Cascades/Washington)

Brian Tracy describes the explorer as a traveler....one who has an incredible dissatisfaction with routine and normal living.  A question I often ask myself is "Why be ordinary?"  Settling for ho-hum and status quo isn't an option.  Sure, there's risk involved.  You are stretched way beyond your comfort zone.  Hard work and difficult circumstances demand ongoing perseverance.  But there is also joy in the journey, in the actual processes themselves, and exhilaration at the end of finally "summiting"  the goal.  I love the challenging way Henry Longfellow expressed it in a poem...."Those heights by great men, won and kept, Were not achieved by sudden flight; But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upwards in the night."

(Mt. Baker, Washington- North Cascade Range)

One great adventure is open to all of us.  Christ said, "Follow me!"  His disciples left all to do just that.  Their answer to that call turned the world upside down....changing even the policy of the Roman empire.  That call had a high cost but those disciples never looked back once they committed.  They went beyond ordinary, safe, and mediocre.  They experienced LIFE!  

Lucy Swindoll wrote in her book I Married Adventure about that choice herself..."The choice was mine and mine alone.  I decided to go for the latter.  I determined to do whatever it took to keep my spirits up.  I took God at His word that He would be with me and take care of me, that He'd go before me and straighten the crooked places, that He'd be my Comforter, Friend, and Great Physician.  Something about that choice had a rush in it for me.  An edge.  An excitement.  Each day, I couldn't wait to see what would happen!"

(Mt. Shuskan - North Cascade Range)

So...what are we waiting for?!  Strap on your backpack, coil your rope, grip your pick axe.

Something hidden.  For you.  Christ calls.  Go and find it!

Be brave and courageous!