Friends.

I received a voicemail last Sunday morning and it went something like this… “Hey bro.  This is Jeremy… I hope all is well and that you are going to be around this week… because Jake and I are in Iowa on our way out to see you.”   

 

What a blessing.  It was a great treat to get to spend some quality time with old friends… Even though I had to work full time for two of the days… it was soooo good.   

 

They got a little taste of the fun I get to have daily on the riv on Monday afternoon… Monday night we drove my 4Runner up a super sketchy road half way up Mt. Princeton and hung out there for hours drinking hot chocolate and catching up on each others lives.  It was awesome.  

It truly was a blessing to have those guys out here.  It was a really tangible expression of friendship and truly made me feel loved by their sacrifices of time and money.

Mercies!

hello, backcountry.

I will be escaping into the Colorado backcountry for approximately 6 days starting tomorrow morning.  I am looking forward to a great time of rest, relaxation, and fellowship with friends.  Tomorrow is part of our last training block for the summer.  The jist of the trip is this… We will get blindfolded… driven into the mountains for about an hour… dropped off… given four maps not knowing where we are on any of them and told to be at a certain destination in 5 days. 

 

Should be a blast. Seriously… can’t wait. 

 

I’ll be in touch next weekend. Here is a little updated picture of my appearance as of late…  

 

 

mercies.

Musings.

Hola. So… I’m near close to being done with the first week back to Noah’s.  It has been a great experience.  I love the people here.  They are simply a blessing.  It is a super uplifting and encouraging environment to work in.  Sometimes… I even feel it is too nice or too encouraging… But I guess maybe it is better to error in the positive rather than the negative.  Regardless… I have really enjoyed my time here so far.  I am really joyful in my decision to return.  Training has been tough, but not nearly as tough as I thought it would be.  We ran the Narrows three times on Thursday and busted out two trips down Brown’s filled with tons of scenarios.  The practice has been great. Laura Freddy flipped in the Narrows yesterday which was an interesting situation to watch unfold. Anywho… I went and hung out at the Bread House tonight and an impromptu worship session broke out.  It was really good for me to sit and listen and quiet my heart.  I don’t know if I sang a word… but I didn’t have to.  It was a blessing in my life and it provided some much needed ‘quiet’ time alone with myself.  I have been learning a lot this week about who I am and who I want to be.  We have been discussing a lot of different aspects of our company and our jobs as guides and the consensus is that we are more than just river guides. 

 

• Guiding is simply a medium in which we get to minister to the hearts of people.

With this… we have been discussing why ‘we’ exist and the core values of Noah’s.  Allow me to share with you our mission statement and values and some assertions that have really spoken truth and challenged me.

 

• Our Mission:
• To challenge and encourage people in their relationships with God, others and themselves.
• Our Values:
• Excellence
• I will seek to be excellent in all aspects of my work – pushing myself to be a contributor and not a consumer in all I do.
• Relationships
• Out of an extension of my love relationship with Christ, I will choose to love others well – beginning with those closest to me and then also to whomever God brings into my path.
• Teaching and Training
• Out of an extension of my love relationship with Christ, I will choose to be developed, and also pour myself into the development and encouragement of those around me.
• Extraordinary Customer Service
• Out of an extension of my relationship with Christ, I will seek to love my customers by providing “extraordinary customer value.”
• Recreation
• My time outdoors is one of my favorite extensions of my relationship with Christ.
• Challenging thoughts and assertions regarding these values:
• If people do not feel safe and cared for they will not rust me and it will therefore deafen their ears to anything I have to say.
• I choose to be authentic – to not hide my true feelings, strengths and failures.  I will offer all of these parts of myself to staff – as an incomplete non-perfect human that is growing and learning.
• I commit to not say anything negative about another member of my community.
• I choose to acknowledge that people are the reason I do what I do.

 

• World Rockers:
•  
• I recognize that the motivation for my own personal development can only come from within. I can respond by rising to the occasion, or ignoring the opportunity.  I choose to rise, respond, and grow.
• I choose to seek out my gifts and talents and exploit them like never before – realizing that what my community needs is 100% of what I have to offer.
• I will seek opportunities to help develop those around me, and speak words of life into their circumstances.  I choose to encourage people – not discourage them.

 

It is easy to say this company is challenging me and turning me into a better lover of kingdom purposes and people.

 

Challenges of the heart are difficult ones to deal with.

 

Traveling mercies.

Relationships.

I’m a very relational human being. I enjoy people… in all our weirdness and awkwardness and failures and successes… I think people are fascinating.  Other people are essential to my life… they are my sustenance. Granted… don’t get me wrong… I love being by my self… I do… But I thrive on people.  

 

Community is my life bread. 

 

Community is great (it’s essential to healthy lives and true faith)… In moderation.  

 

community |kəˈmyoōnitē|noun ( pl. -ties)

a particular area or place considered together with its inhabitants, esp. in the context of social values and responsibilities;  a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.

 

There is a stark difference, however, between true community and faulty misrepresentations of a beautiful thing.  I’ve been apart of some incredible communities in my short life already… but I’ve experienced some of the worst lies in human history as well. That, unfortunately, is another topic for another day.

 

All too often, I trade in community, true or more then not faulted, for single personal relationship with the Creator.  I place people in my life that take up too much time… leaving myself nothing.  

 

I’m more comfortable in the noise. Silence scares the hell out of me. 

 

Should I not be more content outside of community in the silence of an intimate relationship then in the noise?  Noise=distraction.  It’s easy.  Here lies the biggest struggle of my life.  Replacing people and things for a single constant truth.  One of my brothers from the land of rafting and whitewater, Brandon Brewer, said something so profound in a blog of his: 

“I’m awkwardly feeling uncomfortable here and wanting to make some changes in my life. Just been seeping into apathy in my walk and relationships, so keep me in your prayers I guess, I’m chasing things that have no treasure.”

I get chills every time I read the last seven words of that statement… this statement has spoken so much truth into my life.  In fact, I hate it. I hate how perfect those last seven words sum up my life.  I hate it.

Brewha left us with this as well: “I miss community and miss you guys. I pray that your lives are unsatisfied in the world but solely dependent on the Lord and His grace. I also pray that you are persecuted… otherwise it’s obvious the devil has no threat. Stay consistent and stay in pursuit.” 

 

I hope this was not rambling… but encouragement. Piercing questions welcome. Be blessed.

Traveling mercies.

“There is only one relationship that matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal redeemer and Lord. Let everything else go, but maintain that at all costs, and God will fulfill His purpose through your life.” Oswald Chambers