120-We're Going To Miss You Mama Bear... I was quite nervous as I slowly rolled up to my lady interest’s home in Grand Blanc. It was a quiet sub, houses showing the similarities of a common builder but the lights were on and welcoming. I had no idea what to expect meeting her family, her parents especially made my palms sweat. After opening introductions, I realized that I was going to like this family—"Mad Dog” and “Mama Dosh” were
119- Stillness In God's Creation How do we hear God in today's culture? Do we even have time to listen with the pace of our lives? Our lives are filled with more distractions than ever today with work, family, social media, and endless entertainment on the internet. Do we ever set time aside in our days to listen to God truly distraction-free with our phones within arms reach? There’s a power in stillness surrounded by God’s creation. We live
118-What Are You Reflecting? “See ya in the morning” bounced back and forth between couples as Jen and I slid open the screen door to get the full impact of the cool night air. Lake Huron breezes lightly graced my face when I closed the door behind us and pointed myself toward the tent pitched on the uniform grass that led all the way back from our friend’s cottage to the sandy shore of the great lake. Just about
117-Nerves Of Steel Or Jello? I think I could feel my heart pounding on the inner wall of my chest cavity. It was requesting more blood, my brain meanwhile, requesting an escape plan for the moment and cycling a rolodex of questions for my experience to answer—Who is going to be on this adventure? Will they be impressed or think this is stupid? Are we ready? Like, really ready? One might think that we had somehow joined the majors
116-Wilderness A common question we get here at Project Forty is why does this matter? How does unplugging in the wilderness crossover into ministry? This last trip we guided was a fresh reminder of why we believe in what we do. After trip with 8 guys, over 3 days with 2 rappels, and 1000 push-ups later, it was abundantly clear to me why we do what we do. It all started with a connection through our former Pastor Doug
115-There's A Time To Rappel And A Time To Just Be... I punched in my passcode again, feeling the weight of my own, self-inflicted guilt for my dependence on my personal computer and connection to the world, held nonchalantly with a single hand. Compared to most, my display of apps doesn’t even require folders for organization because they are so few, but ranking among the highest in priority is that weather app. Where’s the adventure in this? I thought
114-Over The Laser and Through The Lava, Up The Cargo Net We Go... It was hard to tell from the blank stares that I was receiving if gears were internally turning or there would be an upcoming long sigh of boredom. Then, with the initiative of just one student stepping gingerly from the small four-foot by six-foot tarp onto the even smaller carpet square, ideas began to buzz. “Our instructions are written?” another student doubtfully questioned, while still another
113- The Nicodemus Hug All Day“How can these things be?” naturally flowed from his lips without any thought, his mind racing to build a concrete mental vision of the words of Jesus. Spirit, water, wind—I’ve spent my lifetime studying the Torah and this guy is so outside of the box, but it’s real. He’s real. God, what do I do? Nicodemus took the time to seek Jesus of Nazareth at night, concealed by the cloak of darkness, away from the
112- Plug In | Tune Out... They Say. 3D, 3D, 3D I repeated in my head as I hurried in the direction of the terminal that I have been frequenting more regularly this past 12 months. Does my parking ticket have 3D on it? No! How the heck would the machine have any idea what section of the Big Blue garage at Metro Airport I intended to park? Come ‘on Matt, get with it! As I worked to log into
111- Expedition Log Expedition log: January 12th, 2023. We set off on our expedition late last night. With wide open roads and perfect conditions, it took us less time than expected to arrive at our base camp situated in the heart of Munising, just blocks off the mighty Lake Superior. The crew wasn’t exactly thrilled with a lack of cell phones and sleep as we initiated our first alpine start. It was approximately 4 am when we started to prepare
