Up-Close

When everyone is pulled over on the side of the road, looking out their windows with binoculars, you pull over, too. That's the first rule you learn in National Parks 101 because it means that somebody has spotted something that you don't want to miss. 

We parked the car, hopped out, and approached one of the people pointing and staring out into the forest of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. "What do you see?" 

"It's a bear with two cubs!" 

My family came over to this side of the park on this particular day for that very reason - the possibility of seeing a black bear. What you must also know is that my mother always prays on these family adventures for extraordinary wildlife to "cross the road in front of us". We joke about it as a family, but God must laugh with us too because he frequently answers it. We have some pretty crazy wildlife stories to prove it. 

So mom prayed up a black bear, and a mama with cubs at that. 

We watched her continue to march through the undergrowth until she exposed herself on the side of the road, stopping to drink from a puddle in the clearing. One cub followed her out, then the second, then a third and fourth with a gasp from the crowd that had gathered. After she had a drink, she moseyed her way back into the forest with her four playful babies following her wherever she went. When she got tired of the parade of tourists following her (yet keeping our distance of course!), she paused at the base of a tree, stood up on her hind legs, and placed her paws around the trunk as if to hug it.

"She's not going to climb that tree, is she?" 

I thought bears only climbed trees in children's storybooks, but she proved me wrong! Much to the bewilderment and enthusiasm of the onlookers, she hoisted herself up the trunk of a tree and climbed 60 feet right up to the top. Her strength and ease made our jaws drop, as if we were witnessing something only a National Geographic photographer has the right to see. All four of her cubs followed her, shimmying their way up slowly with all four legs sprawled out, like little black furry starfishes hanging on for dear life. They all made it to the top, where baby bears explored and mama feasted on a nest of insects she dug out of a hole in the trunk. 

After about thirty minutes of watching this amazing natural behavior of the bears, a ranger arrived and ordered us all out of the woods, telling us we were "too close" to the bear...and she may have been right. We certainly were up-close, and not many people have seen such extraordinary, unfiltered wildness with their own eyes. "Can you believe that?" We kept asking each other. "Did that really just happen?" The four of us in our family left the scene in absolute awe, wonder, and excitement at the bear show that God put right on the road in front of us. 

By the end of the family vacation, that bear sighting was everyone's highlight of the trip. And to think we would have missed it if we hadn't been at the right place at the right time, or if we had been in a hurry or passed all the cars that had stopped, or if we had never ventured out into the forest in the first place. 

When we venture out, step out of our comfort zone, and pray big things, God answers and reveals himself mightily. In some strange way, the bears reminded me of that. They reminded me that when we follow the path God has laid out before us, keep our eyes wide open, and slow down enough to look, he is there, ready to show us his glory in extraordinary ways that we maybe never even thought possible. And we get a close-up, unimaginably great experience with him. 

It was as if the bears beckoned me to keep exploring and adventuring, not just in the woods but in life. I think God richly rewards adventure. Perhaps a more biblical word is pilgrimage. Psalm 84 says, "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage." In other words, their hearts are determined to journey, and the journey leads them to God. And God blesses them with strength. 

I'm on an airplane right now, flying over Fort Wayne on my way to Atlanta and Paris and Ouagadougou to finish the year in Burkina Faso. The feeling in my chest right now is the same one I felt when I looked into the forest to spot those bears - a feeling of wonder and excitement at what is to come. An anticipation and breathlessness at what God is going to show me. An expectation that something amazing is out there for the finding. 

From time to time, I ask myself why I write this blog, and the reason changes from season to season of life. But today, the reason is this: I want you to experience for yourself the wonder and joy of adventuring with the Lord. It's a wonder far greater than any wild black bear sighting, a joy more pure and satisfying than anything the world can offer. I want your heart to beat wild and your mouth to fall open and your eyes to not believe what you see God do in your life and the lives of those around you. May you see something more. I don't want you to just live it all vicariously through me, I want you to know that you have the same gift presented to you that the Lord has presented to me - to live life on adventure with him. The adventure might be getting on a plane or taking a vacation with your family in the mountains, or it might be talking to that person you've been meaning to talk to, sharing your story and faith with someone you know needs to hear it, joining that group, attending that class, or starting up that something that's been stirring in your heart for a while now.

What it is exactly is between you and God, but whatever it is, it requires faith and courage and intentionality. It may be more dangerous than getting close to a mama bear with cubs. Or it may be something seemingly ordinary on the outside that is extremely significant and adventurous for you. What is important is not how your adventure measures up to mine or anybody else's, but that you grab God's hand and go for it. 

May the Lord of creation, life, and all it's wildness fill you with vision and wonder and an adventurous spirit. May he reveal to you the path before you one step at a time, and may you follow it with faithfulness and boldness, confidence and expectation, serenity and joy. May you take hold of his hand, trust him with all your heart, and let him lead you on the adventure of a lifetime.