So I've been told to write...

I've been told to write.


Mom suggested it when I started taking care of Tutu (Hawaiian name for "Grandmother") on August 23rd and my fantastic "Heart to Heart" Bible study leader Teresa (check out her awesome creativity here ) has mentioned several times that I ought to be typing out this phase of journey. 


Well, in what seems to be typical, I've waited until it seemed over. I wish now that I had been writing all along, it would be neat to announce in real time the things the Lord has done and is continuing to do, however, hindsight is 20-20 and hopefully taking this retrospectively will reveal how prevalent His hand has been...particularly when I did not see it in the moment. 


As you follow along I'll do my best to be honest with you. Hold me accountable to the confession of my emotions, doubts, fears, questions, frustrations... because I want to be genuine with what the Lord is doing. Sometimes I wonder if the greater works are the things He shapes in my atmosphere or the reconditioning of my heart (I'm becoming increasingly sure it is my heart). I love that our God loves to care for us that intimately...and I am simultaneously terrified.


I was telling Mom yesterday that I'd realized how I wasn't trusting God with my heart, and then confessing the thought led that same heart to break! It is true when scripture says the the "troubles of the heart multiply" and that it declares in the night hours to "seek His face!" (Psalm 17, 27).  Don't you find that at night, in the dark and lonely hours, your heart seems most distressed? That time that the Lord intended for rest becomes clouded and confusing. And how appropriate that the physical darkness matches desperation for the Light. 


Yesterday I recommitted my heart to the Lord. I know this sounds like something you do just once a summer at church camp, but I think it is something I need to do daily. In just the course of a day our hearts have so much of the dirt and grime of the world to trek through that a lot of it sticks. We become weighed down by both our own choices and disappointments and the by-blows of choices of others. I like what Job 11:13-18 has to say, here I am putting it in my own words:




"If you will reserve your heart for Him and reach open hands to Him,  that releasing of agenda about your own "kingdom" and the banishing of the evil encamped around you will grant the confidence to lift your face, the confidence to look at your Father with not inadequacy but heirship. You will rise bravely and steadily, you will have no reason to fear. Your distress you will not remember, you will know it only as 'waters gone by'. Life will be more radiant than full sunshine, and the darkness will become a sunrise. You will be hedged in, because you have hope you will see the storm around you while taking respite in the fort of the the Lord. "


I love that He makes "life brighter than noonday" and turns the "darkness into morning." In my dark hours the Lord says "let there be light!" and where I thought there was nothing but the darkness that light exposes a magnificent creation, an unfolding of purpose, a pathway cleared of the foliage that I can follow surely with Him. 


Back to the conversation with Mom yesterday; I realized how much the wisdom God gives is meant to be used. Silly isn't it? If you know me you've maybe heard me mention James 1 where it says that the Lord gives "wisdom to all, without finding fault," or tell you that it is wisdom God promises, not answers. You know what wisdom is? Thanks to freedictionary.com it is "1. The ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; insight." or 2. enlightenment. "


Enlightenment. How perfect for the verses from Job. Wisdom is all of the sudden seeing, then not merely seeing but taking the right action. 


I think our walks with God are like a mountain range. You stand on the top of one peak declaring "Wow! Look from whence I've come!" and hear the echoes of that joy resound from every rock, crevice, precipice and valley overcome. Then, infused with the confidence of what you've just looked back upon, you ask boldly "Lord! Show me more! Lead me! You are so good! So mighty! So great! I'll follow you! Teach me more!" and gently the Lord turns you to recollect the peak you are on is merely one height of a mountain range... and that next height is taller. You yearn to be there, to see more feel more experience more of how great God is but that means you've got to leave the mountain top. You're going to have to leave the clear view and traverse down through a fog and what unknowns it cloaks, trust again, lean on Him again take your rest in Him all the way to that next new height. It doesn't mean you won't experience peaks and glimpses on the way, but when we ask God to take us higher He says "alright, but that means you'll have to humble yourself enough to step down."

You know, God doesn't force us to grow though. Every peak has at least a little bit of it that's a plateau, and I'm a person that loves the plateau. I will travel every inch of it, camp on it, memorize it, and enjoy it thinking I'm quite comfortable and don't want to move on. And God will let me do that at least for a little while but He has made us to desire more. Eventually it seems that as great as that little area is it has become too small and familiar, then I doubt my contentedness and belief of God's greatness but if you do this too don't!


Know those places and commit them to memory because you'll need that picture to be encouraged on your next climb. Our God is the greatest and one of my favorite things about the Lord is that we can have high expectations of Him and He will exceed them! We can never think too highly of our God!


John 16 says that "Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete."
This refers to the measure of the Holy Spirit that the Lord wants to give us, the indwelling strength He desires us to have to take on climb. 


In James 4 we're told that we "Have not because we ask not" or that we do not have what we ask because we "ask with wrong motive". If we "come near to God" He will come near to us. If we "resist the devil" he will flee from us... flee, I like that word. It means to "run away to escape" imagine that! With the power of the Holy Spirit the devil will want to get away from us!


"Humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up". Mountain ranges aren't so tough when you're being carried and lifted, you just gotta be willing to relinquish your own power and perch on Christ's. 


I like promises, I pray you can cling to these as I am. See you along the journey, remember, God will.


Allison

"Our God is in Control"

In the panic that's wrecking havoc on Baylor students right now, someone posted this to facebook, so I went ahead and listened and found it worth sharing.


Steven Curtis Chapmen, Our God is In Control


Sometimes we so just need that reminder not that "everything is ok" but rather that "our God is in control".


Sovereignty is no easy thing to grasp, but that is actually my reassurance right now. I cannot comprehend it, and in a moment where even the things of man can seem to big to wrap my head around ( Calculus anyone?) to know that my God is so much greater and beyond yet simple to know gives me peace.


Think on that, God is complex to understand, but simple to know.


He is accessible, and spreads His truth through all creation that we may discover and realize His reign over it all. I am so grateful for a God that is beyond the capacities of my mind...my mind is a worrisome place, and so He surrounds me with proofs of Himself in things like sparrows and flowers...


Psalm 50: 10-12 "for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine... 

For the world is mine, and all that is in it.

"


Matthew 6:25-33  “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."


Seek FIRST His Kingdom, and His Righteousness, and then all other things shall be added to me. I must "set my mind on things above" (Colossions 3:2) and the rest will order itself under Him as it ought to. 

Baylor Business Women

As promised, more information about "BBW".

Officially, BBW's mission is "developing a strong network of Christian women to provide opportunities for personal growth and business relationship development by integrating professional insight, integrity and leadership."


So basically, we're a network of Christian women created to personal development and business skills. We do this by a combination of socials, educational events, and community service. For example, I was blessed this year to participate in a build for Habitat for Humanity with a team of the BBW. 


Ethics, philanthropy, growth, and sisterhood...all in business context. We wear our purple v-necks proudly around campus, but show up dressed professionally for every meeting; I love the combination of casual and corporate, learning and serving, that are all tied into BBW.


If you want to see more (like our Prison Entrepreneurship Program!) look at the link to our site below. Believe me, you'll hear plenty about it in the future.


**for photos of BBW at PEP, select the "media" button on the left and event "Etiquette Night". The ladies in the purple shirts are BBW members.**


...That was the final thing I forgot to mention, I'm the new President!


The youngest they've had actually, and amazingly I didn't even apply for the position, it was offered to me after my interview for the Community Service Chair spot. They liked my vision, and so a few days later called and asked if I was interested! Wow! It's funny how things like that happen and I feel incredibly privileged to be in this place.


And for those that recall being my selection of "Most Likely to Succeed" from last semester, yesterday I represented Baylor Business Women at the Career Expo and helped vote for this semester's students that in the running. The Lord has certainly gone before me back here! If you would like to pray, pray for the ladies on the board. Pray that I serve those I am to lead well! And please pray with thanksgiving and request that I represent Him well in all I do. 


I am so excited to head the Baylor Business Women into the 2010-2011 school year, and feel so blessed by the ladies on the board with me...friendships have begun to develop quickly :)






(Click here for Baylor Business Women webpage.)

April 18th

Though it isn't really what I would choose to talk about right now today is significant, and to ignore so would just feel inconsiderate of all the Lord has accomplished.

Some of you know instantly, some don't. So instead of going into any elaborate story let me come out quickly and say today is the 2 year anniversary of the assault. I hope this isn't a surprise to anyone; I'd feel awful if this is the startling first way you've heard, so of course, please talk to me. Just call my number or message me on facebook, but here's what I want to do now that I've hurried through that announcement...

Two years in review.

I'll be leaving a lot out, but these are the parts that are most apparent to me as milestones at the moment. 

April 18, 2008: THCF's junior high Purity Night at which I was supposed to be a speaking to the girls about Purity, the assault occurred the afternoon before I arrived. 

August 2008: I began school at Baylor University as an Accounting major in the Honors Residential College and Baylor Interdisciplinary Core program.

Thanksgiving 2008: after having talked to girls I was in Bible study with, I planned, and then failed, to tell my family about the assault.

December 30th, 2008: after receiving a deficiency notice from the University my parents checked through my Baylor accounts, found a letter in which I had written of the assault, and approached me on it. We decided I would not return to Baylor for the spring semester.

January 2009: I had my first counseling appointment and Mom and I flew to Baylor together to pack up my things. During my check out of school, we met Melanie Smith; an academic advisor in the Hankamer Business School, and Dean Mark Dunn. Both of them expressed a desire to see me back at Baylor, and I found myself incredibly encouraged by them in the midst of feeling "just not cut out" for the school.

January 2009-April 2009: FAMILY, counseling, lots of God time, and an interview to work at Hume Lake Christian Camps

May 2009: last counseling appointment, Mom and Mary Ann and I head to Hume Lake to drop me off

Summer 2009: Hume Lake, I learned that God had some amazing appointments set for me that summer. Shared with a lot of girls in ways that were divinely orchestrated.

August 2009: I officially heard I'd be back at Baylor!!! Spent a few days home and headed back to Texas. 

Fall Semester, 2009: I felt incredibly challenged to prove I did belong back, and as affirmation won "Most Likely to Succeed" from my business class of 250! Melanie Smith introduces me to Baylor Business Women, a key reason I won the success award. 

Spring Semester, 2010: I become president of Baylor Business Women, and am reintroduced to Dean Mark Dunn who recognizes me and welcomes me back. 

Friday, April 16th, 2010: the Friday that would be the two-year-mark of the assault. Preston-my boyfriend- and I have a movie and cooking night.

Today, April 18th, 2010: the numeric two-year mark, I post this to declare ... Oh how good and great is our GOD!

 I'll post soon about the more recent updates, but for today this review felt appropriate. Thank you for pouring into me in my need, and celebrating with me in the victories,

Allison

Sandwiches or Cigarettes

Tonight I fed a homeless man, but, before you go giving me a virtual pat-on-the-back let me confess it doesn't happen as often as it should and that I first noticed him while at the McDonald's Redbox paying a dollar for a movie that I could have been buying him a sandwich with. Interesting how those things work.

Well, I gave myself a mental lecture in the parking lot about how it wasn't safe for me to stop for a homeless man at 12:20 at night in Waco, and continued the lecture all the way home only to have worked myself up enough that I ran up the apartment steps and made him a hasty sandwich-dinner bag and drove back to the parking lot where I'd spotted him.

He was still there, speaking to something I couldn't see and shuffling back and forth in his pinkish colored flip-flops.

I pulled up and called to him, and handed the little dinner package out the window explaining the foods inside.

"Do you have a light?" he asked, sticking a lighter in my window.

"No sir, I've very sorry, I don't"

"No cigarettes?"

"No sir, I don't smoke, I do not have any cigarettes."

"Any cash?"

I glanced down, "Actually I left my purse at home, I'm very sorry sir. "

He proceeded to curse me and hit his hand on the car door, "I don't want food! I want cigarettes!"

I apologized a final time, "I'm very sorry sir, I do not have any cigarettes. But maybe you could give the food to someone else then? I need to go, good night" and left.

It makes me wonder a little bit, should I have bought him cigarettes instead? Of course I did not know what he wanted at the time I prepared the sandwich,  but thinking of those times when I ask the individual what they want, such as what kind of sandwich he or she would prefer, if I should consider saying yes if they ask me instead to buy cigarettes.

I won't, because I don't endorse smoking, and would rather give something sustaining rather than harmful when I try to help people, but if what that homeless person really wants is a pack of cigarettes, should I consider? Should I deny them their craving, unhealthy as it is, and instead give them food they will not have an appetite for?

It is curious to consider, and definitely left me puzzling this evening. I can extrapolate upon principles, but I'm left without a perfect answer. In the case of someone as unstable (and I mention now, he was not all mentally there) as this man, is the most effective ministry really the sandwich or the cigarette? We hear about medical mission trips that tend first to the ailments of the body that they may then speak to the hearts, and so for this man afflicted with the "need" for nicotine I wonder if caring for that "disease" first may have been my better action.

Practicality again demands recognition of the fact I was not stopping to share with him, and very likely will not see or recognize him for a future meeting but regardless, deliberation is still dancing on my brain.

Next time will prove another opportunity, prayerfully for more favorable atmosphere where I can invest in a way impacting beyond the temporal shell of body, but for for tonight I won't belittle that. God does as He pleases, and I relinquish my thoughts that they might be pleasing to Him.

Good night.

Life As My Classroom

The term “class” has several uses, it can be the sophistication of an individual, the rank of social group one is a part of, or the set of individuals present to learn a subject. There are several variations of available uses for each ranging from “being the best in its league” through the type of quality grading food products receive. “Class” is a word of wide utility but I’d like to bundle all of the forms above to talk about my experiences in a tax office today.

Benjamin Franklin told us “In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” We know Benjamin Franklin was a signer of our Declaration of Independence where “all men” are announced to be “created equal”, and the government that taxes us today still stands by the philosophy that we are “equal”. So since  last I checked the statistics for American’s was 1 in 1 people die, I’m going to call death and taxes a safe equalizer, but when you’re standing in the office interacting with varying taxpayers you sure wouldn’t think they knew it.
Every individual that enters that office has taxes. Whether paid or unpaid, prepared or unprepared, waiting for a refund or waiting for payment vouchers, the individuals in that office have taxes. So that creates a commonality. The office only has one waiting area; everyone sits in the same style chair in the same area. And only one type of coffee is served in the same style of plain Styrofoam cup. Each individual is greeted with the same basic script rehearsed by the same employee. Wow, that’s three things beyond taxes now that the individuals in the office share, but that’s the point. Sharing doesn’t happen.

The polished brief-case bearing business man saunters in rather confidently. Either he is not concerned about taxes or really just doesn’t mind, but he needs to be seated where he can see the clock.

The couple chatters in, asking about the rules of filing jointly for refund pick-up, how much can they write off for a new home purchase? And request to be moved ahead because they have a babysitter waiting at home.

The pregnant single-mother wobbles in, hands full between protecting belly and keeping a toddler from tipping over, asking in hushed tones what sort of child care credits can she get, and what happens if she haven’t received child support in a while?
The fast-food worker swishes in, proceeded by greasy apron and the smell of smoke, needing to know, exactly how long will the wait be? He’s on break and brought a borrowed car.

And the quiet one pads in, holding bundles and offering a hotel number for her contact. She’ll wait if it’s alright, even if it will be a few hours. And she studies the wall poster “RECEIVE YOUR REFUND TODAY!” with covert eyes and fidgeting fingers.

There are more than just these four people that frequent the office, but it’s amazing that each dons a class of their own. With all that is similar in this setting, the waiting area is curiously silent. They won’t talk about the weather, how long the wait has been, or if the economy will turn up. They don’t comment on the movies showing next door or the dancing sign holder at the corner. They don’t laugh together at the little boy trying to somersault in the middle of the room or the secretary that drops a pile of papers. Each is in his or her own little realm boxed off from the tax office-world they share, and no matter how long they are stuck with us they won’t break out.
They have their classes, but I have to wonder when the momentary circumstances are leveled why they still impose those positions upon themselves.  It seems as if class is not merely a socio-economic placing, but that these individuals manage to rate and teach themselves to stay in this role when it really isn’t necessary.

Those that are making the least in the room choose to condescend themselves as if I will look poorly on the income they made, will think it is wrong to be employed where they work, or will judge them poorly for living where they do.  In response to their own judgments of themselves they slouch, do not make eye-contact, speak quietly, or even blush or tremble. They minimize their existence as if they have less permission to it than those that appear to make more than they do. And that really is it. Appearances have an enormous impact on the “class” these people teach themselves that they belong to, and how much “class” they think they are allowed to show.
Because at the front desk I am wearing slacks and a blouse it is assumed I am their superior when really the majority of the clients have made more and work much harder than I do. If I say something about tax I must be right, there is no dissention, even if they have paid their mortgage for years and I have never had one. I’m granted a “class”, a status, which I’ve not even earned.  It is like the teacher walking into the classroom, because I happen to be at the front of the room it is decided that I must be the expert instructor. Positioning and perception does so much to determine the metaphysical station I hold. These perceptions prove fatal to engaging in conversation or any communication at all.

On the opposite extreme, are those with “more class” and of a “rank beyond me.” I am the simple secretary, and they have more important people to speak with. In their perception I cannot have anything to contribute to them as they have already surpassed me.
Of course they have, they have more years of life and experience to draw from however in the process they’ve traded in the value of a pupil’s mind. There is something to be gained from the perspective of life’s student and the way that student learns. I have a view they cannot regain, and the unsullied mind is a currency of its own.

If the office is a classroom each client takes notes on where they ought to fit. They find their desk, pick their “group members”, and only trade homework and accept input from the students that they like, or deem can contribute the most to them. The value of teaching others is not there, and yes, we usually pay the teachers, but that is but one type trade we make and the teacher is only paid for how he or she can lead the student. It takes a teacher to teach, but also a student to learn. There are two parts to the equation, and neither has a place without the other.

But anyway, they don’t really teach themselves tax in the waiting area. That’s why they’ve come to the office, because they want or need our help and resources. They teach themselves about themselves, and practice their lessons by silence. I’m not sure they all realize they are choosing not to learn, or maybe they simply think they like the lessons they already have better than the potentials. But they are created equal, and brought themselves to the equal place to work on the taxes they all have. I wish the barriers they’ve invented on the basis of inequality could but put aside. It’s just a waiting area, just a tax office, just a few hours. What more stability and commonality do they need to brave a little communication? Let me correct myself, a little more open communication. Because their postures and total neglect of each other send some messages loud and clear.

Maybe I am wrong. I thought that being human was commonality enough for us to interact with each other, and that by bringing people to a place where that commonality would be deeper and the “classroom” was the same relation to each other could occur more frequently.
But I know that I am not. I still see those people that give me hope, the ones that don’t mind that they’ve still got wet cement stuck to their pant legs, they’ll sit and chat with the elegant woman in pearls. And the child of the affluent couple that tugs on the apron of the MacDonald’s fry cook and asks if she’s met the Hamburglar. Or the 16 year old teen paying his way and staying with Grandma that asks if I’d like to go out sometime. They get it. We’re all human, we’re all breathing, we all live in these things called bodies and interact in language and dwell in an economy that trades our work for money. Same government, same nation, and same nature we walk through every day. Those individuals likely don’t need the sameness though. They know the world is a classroom and we’re all in it, and they don’t mind where the lesson comes from because they are aware nobody decided there was a certain subject they had to learn.  They don’t classify, or if they do, they can put it aside for a little while and not practice to themselves who they can interact with and how, or what standards can judge or place them .

While a single tax office is not the best representation of the demographics available in America, and definitely not the world, as a whole, every model requires some simplification and this is mine.

They all have taxes, and they have finite lives. Enough equalizing? I think more than enough. Let’s try to quit being “classy”, get out of our own leagues, suspend grading, and stop trying to sort everyone. I’ll start in the tax office and I encourage you to start somewhere. There are differences, I will never deny that, but when we broaden our perspectives we can turn the scale horizontally, and realize it’s not a matter of some being further above or below us, but some just being further away from us. There is only one expert on every individual’s life, and so I advise we discontinue this habit of missing our opportunities to share discourse with so many experts, because too frequently we only receive that one opportunity.

When We Get Too High

I had been talking about different "scales" of evaluation for the world in a group project recently and found some of the group members becoming too academic. It seems they frequently fall into a mindset that to save the world they they must remove themselves from it while contrarily the gospel tells us to still be "in the world" while simultaneously "not of it".
So anyway, a good point I still see here is that God has left us on earth for a reason, not taken us at our moment of salvation and submission to Him as Lord, so let's be in the world. We've been up to the heights but just like Moses, we must come down....hopefully faces shining bearing words of the Lord. Here you'll see I say we can go too high, I know it won't directly apply to you readers, but maybe it will be interesting to you anyway...some insight to my life and the project either way.

So here begins my rant.

There is another type of scale I’ve not  yet mentioned, the type of “scale” you would use to climb a mountain. It is interesting because when I imagine one approaching an obstacle, be it wall, fence, or mountain, the first thing one does it “scale it up”, meaning, give it a good look and determine, is it feasible to mount and move up and over? Once the obstacle has been “scaled” by the eye, the actual movement must occur. Be aware, however, that in many cases, the object of focus is not actually an obstacle but instead a desired look-out place, a “high place” that carries a purpose to climb in its own.

So if in this case the object was an obstacle, once “scaled” one can continue upon their journey, see their environment from a higher perspective, reach the other side, and carry forth.
But in the case of the object being the goal, a mountain-top-moment can be had. The significance depends upon the individual, or though I’ve not yet mentioned it, the group of individuals, but the point being the view has been seen, the mountain crossed over, the caves and crevices explored, the hidden valleys played in, the silent deer observed, the fresher air breathed, and the heavens made that small bit closer as the grandeur, the “scale”, of it all is taken in.

But of course, can it all really be taken in? Or do the details and realities become a little more obscure, a little smaller, and a little easier to ignore? The ragged marks humanity tears into the world and each other become less terrifying when we travel high enough. Perhaps it the the purity of air we are simply unaccustomed to that lightens our heads, or perhaps it the fog and clouds of the mysteries we are not usually a part of that haze our view, but to take those “high” experiences and apply them to the place we know of need we must come down. If we do not, we shall soon forget the valleys and plains we left, the common places that are not the mountain, and need tending to.  To forget these worlds will mean also to forget the amazement at the mountain.

When tarrying too long on the mountain, surrounded in the beauty and wonder we lose touch with that world we’re from, instead of sojourning we become stagnant. At this point we are the decay of the mountain rather than the “salt” working as preservers to the earth.
There is one final thought to consider. To have climbed the mountain is an accomplishment. Rocks crags and inclines are not easy to traverse. It takes time and work, it means becoming covered in the makings of the mountain as you go and abandoning the structures of your ordinary abode to make bed in grasses beneath the stars…grasses you share with hundreds of other creatures, many of which you do not know. Climbing the mountain is not always comfortable, but it is good. And when the trek has been made it is an experience to tell and share. It is an impressive experience, one many choose not to endeavor for.

I ask now, what if one had taken a rocket? Journeyed to the moon, blitzing past the hills and mountains, piercing clouds, and splitting atmosphere to land on that pearly sphere that circuits us?

You would have an experience, that is certain. You would have been higher than any mountain climber had ever been before, and would have been chosen more selectively than the one that decided to climb the mountain. You would have been beyond the mountaineer, and in a faster more radical way. But should you sit down with one that had scaled a mountain and compared your journeys, I think you would find your experiences in lack.

Reading you may think I am comparing things that ought not to be compared, the man who climbed the mountain had an entirely separate venture than the one that shot to the moon, and to this I say, yes, precisely.

Their ventures were separate, and no astronaut should claim to know a mountain. He may have been beyond it and seen the peak where it lay in the collection of ranges and how it integrated to the landscape of that continent when compared in its stretch beyond nations and timezones and all the constructs of man…but the fact remains, he does not know the mountain. And he cannot until he has chosen to be humble, and take it on. To be humble is to have accurate picture of oneself in the scheme of what is bigger, that means an awareness of both the good and the bad. The failings and the victories, but all these from the sight of the Creator, who’s forces move make and maintain all that is with-in and with-out.

To make change upon our world we must be mountaineers not astronauts, and good mountaineers at that. The ones that go up, and observe and sign to memory the beauty and wonder of what is beyond but come back to share that, and guide others up the mountain as well. We must be good in that we do not hide in the hills and separate ourselves, only to let other qualified mountaineers get past our door, but rather go out, seek, knock for ourselves upon other doors and invite, teach, and guide and show the things that are bigger and that we in our words cannot possess.

We cannot be astronauts, because, let’s face it, not everyone can hop on a rocket. But the experience of the mountain can be had. It is not a matter of settling, but a matter of knowing what first we can do.