This is the fourth post on this topic. “When trials and temptations crowd into your life, don’t resent them…welcome them as friends!” How can such difficulties possibly be for our good? And if they are for our good, does our God keep adding more adversity, more difficulty to our lives? And if He does that, …
“Life is hard. Then, you die.” This is the happy, hopeful message I read on a bumper sticker several years ago. I have never forgotten it, in large part because I was struck at how truthful the message was, and yet how it totally missed “the rest of the story.” Yes, adversity dogs us. Setbacks, …
Nearly three years ago, on a sunny Saturday morning, I had just finished a long weekend run. As I stood in the kitchen drinking a Powerade, my phone rang. Looking at the California number on the ID and calculating the time difference, I knew before answering it that bad news was coming. And I was …
“If God loves me, why can’t I get my locker open?” This is the tongue-in-cheek title of a popular teen devotional book written years ago. Perhaps it was popular because we have all had this thought in some form or another. If God loves me, why did my father treat me as he did? If …
Don’t you love a good adventure story? You know, the stories that keep you up reading long after you should be in bed. The stories made into movies that you watch repeatedly because they are that good. Years ago I largely stopped reading fiction adventures. Instead, I have maintained steady diet of true-life adventure stories. …
Continuing with the story of Tobin Sorenson from the previous post. I met Tobin in 1978 when he was at the pinnacle of his climbing career. Several things impressed me immediately. He rarely talked about his climbing unless asked. He had a look in his brilliant blue eyes that spoke of passion, focus, and commitment. …
Tobin Sorenson (June 15, 1955 - October 5, 1980) was an American rock climber famed for bold first ascents on Yosemite big walls, in the Alps, Canadian Rockies, and New Zealand. He is considered by some the best all-around climber of his time. A member of an informal group called the Stonemasters, Sorenson pushed risk …
He had fallen and landed on a ledge. He needed help. I had a group of student climbers out on the rock for an all-day class on leading and anchors. I could see another party on the rock to my left. One of their members was laying on a ledge a little way down from …
How difficult would it be to never be loved? Listen to the ache of being unloved in these excerpts from a poem, “I Just Want Someone to Love Me,” by a writer named Samantha. What am I doing wrong I just want someone to be there To tell me that they love me To tell …
Think back: who has been your closest and most enjoyable friend? Close friendships, those that cross over into the realm if intimate friendships, are vital to our well-being. In the first of three blog posts on relating and relationships, I covered the research on why these relationships are vital to us. Having that friend with …
Without Limit 