When we think of adventure I think the idea that most often come to mind (I know this is true for me), involves something outdoors. Loading a backpack and heading into the woods, setting out in my canoe, wadding through a river, or climbing a mountain, that is what I define adventure as. But there are many who hate the idea of nature. I have a friend who won't camp because he doesn't want to sleep on the ground, but I don't consider him less of a man because of that.
"I want to say that it is not necessary that a man become a mountaineer, a hunter, or a whitewater rafting guide to experience what I am describing in this book... However, there is something vital and, yes, necessary for the masculine soul that can be found only in wilderness... First, it would be good to remember that the world of nature is the world God created and set us in. He didn't make Adam from polyester, but from the dust of the earth, and he didn't set him down at the mall, but in the outdoors, in nature. The created world, with all its beauty and diversity and wildness, this is the world God intended for us to live in relationship to."
I've shared how I dislike the city, I feel so out of place there, because that isn't the world I was made for. Tell me I have to work in an office all day and wear a suit, and I'll be miserable for the rest of my life. But give me a piece of ground and tell me to improve it, I cannot tell you the joy that would give me, and the hope that it fills my heart with. And again, it's not that there is no adventure in the urban setting, or in an office, but it is something that man has made. We need to find ways to escape that. Why else do you think there is an 840 acre park in the middle of New York City? We were made for nature and deep down our souls crave it in some way.
"There is a humility and a seasoned wisdom to be learned in the natural world, as they are learned no other place. Yes, I have learned humility from my computer. But it pales to all I have learned from the mountains... That is one of the great lessons nature has for us. There is a way things work. You cannot simply walk through this world any old way you want. Turn a canoe sideways and it will tip. Approach an elk upwind and it will spook. Run your hand along the grain of wood and you'll get a splinter. There is a way things work. Oh, what a crucial lesson this is for a man. In the realm of nature, you can't just order room service, or change the channel, or write a new program to solve your problems. You can't ignore the way things work. You must be taught by it. Humility and wisdom come to a man when he learns those ways, and learn to live his life accordingly. his God instruct shim through the natural world. On the other hand, the artificial world is a world that is primarily under our control. And that's why we like it - we men like to have things under our control. Remote control, whenever possible. But that is not good for the masculine soul, nor is it good for a man's spirituality. God is not under our control, and one of the ways a boy and a young man come to begin to realize that is through the natural world. It is big enough, and bold enough, and awe-inspiring enough to begin a sort of fundamental reorientation. You are not the center of the universe. There are forces that command your respect. Learning to live in harmony with them is essential to your survival, not to mention your happiness."
I don't remember when my dad first introduced me to the movie Jeremiah Johnson, but I'm willing to bet that most of you haven't heard of it, much less seen it. It takes place in the mid 1800's and is actually based on a true story. Robert Redford plays the main character who deserts the army and heads west to become a mountain man. He buys a good horse, rifle, and gear and heads off to live in the Rocky Mountains. Fortunately for him he is taken in by an older mountain man who survives by hunting grizzly bears. The night they meet he takes Jeremiah into his cabin and begins to teach him how to survive, and he tells him, "You can't cheat the mountain Pilgrim. Mountain's got its own way."
In nature, no matter how prepared you are, you are never in control. The mountain has its own way that cannot be tamed, you learn to live with it and live by its way. And that is an important lesson to learn, because no matter how prepared you are, or think you are for life, it is never under your control. The universe has an order, and you are not above that, but in the urban world it is easy to miss this lesson. "There are things to learn through nature, lessons that simply cannot be learned anywhere else." And so we need to head to the woods, venture to the mountains, and take in all that it has to offer.
"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."
To God alone be the Glory!
Strength and Honor
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