Renegades

“Go forth and have no fear.” - X Ambassadors (Song lyrics from “Renegades”)

            The wind was blowing today; strong wind.  Perhaps I read more into the wind than what it is, but I love it and feel close to it.  Here at home I like it because it helps drown out the constant hum of the nearby highway; all I can hear is the wind through the spruce boughs and feel the shake of the house when an extra strong gust hits.  It’s strangely comforting.  I say strange because it’s a sign of moving and changing air masses; air moving on currents from high to low pressure seeking some unknown destination.  At the same time I like to picture and sense God’s movement in the wind; movement as the Holy Spirit.  I know He’s always present; always a part of me because I’ve asked Him to be a part of me.  Wind is the confirmation of that presence for me; as if I need that confirmation, or as if He needs to show more proof.  I don’t need that proof of course, and He doesn’t either.  Hence, the wind is strangely comforting.  The group Kansas sings a song entitled, “Dust in the Wind.”  I love it.  It’s a classic song played on an acoustic guitar.  While it is a good song, it is admittedly a pessimistic view of life as if nothing matters.  I do not believe that.  Life matters, people matter, and what we do matters.  We are part of a bigger story, and yet we play a role and live out our purpose or niche as an integral part of that story.  “Every story, great and small, shares the same essential structure because every story we tell borrows its power from a Larger Story, a Story woven into the fabric of our being…”.” (Epic by John Eldredge-Nelson Books, Nashville-2004)

*On a side note, Kerry Livgren of Kansas (song writer, lead guitarist and keyboard player) was on his own journey while with that musical group.  I saw him in concert a few years later, and heard his testimony when I was in college.  He was performing at the time in the band called “AD”. - http://www.numavox.com/us.htm)

            In other words, this is it!  We can live a life with meaning, a life with purpose, and learn from the highs and lows along the way because indeed that is part of our story.  That’s a much different view of life than the person living in such a way as to get past the things they either don’t like in their life, or the person trying to get everything perfect before they can start living.  I can live life with a sense of freedom and abandonment like the wind itself.  I can live like a renegade.  It’s strangely comforting that with this structure in my life I can have freedom.

            Speaking of renegades, the unofficial/official Gulo Adventure Clan gathered this morning after an evening of parent/teacher conferences.  It was a repeat performance of last year (See Past Entry "Un - Common Core") but at fifty something degrees it was almost sixty-five degrees warmer this year.  We gathered early and drove out to one of my favorite areas.  It’s open and vast and wild in some areas, and yet thick and close and embracing in others.  It is flat and it is hilly.  It has prairies and it has woods; with both highlands with hardwoods and bottomlands with softwoods.  Today we walked through all of those environs, including a wide marsh.  We had to; there was so much ice on the trails and areas we were trying to walk across, that we had to choose a course where we could walk with some sort of footing.  It was the result of the remnant snow and warm weather.

            It was a long walk in, but it was perfect in that it allowed us to talk and dialogue and enjoy both the work and beauty of it all.  Along the way we crossed several creeks and made our way to the bank of a large river.  I quickly made a fire while the others put up a tarp to block the wind or looked for firewood. 

            The wind was blowing from the West by Southwest at 30 to 40 miles per hour, with gusts up to 60, although the woods helped to block some of that. 

Conversations covered school, sports (heroes and underdogs, both legitimate and fallen), and a host of other side topics on the heels of the wind.  Our prayer was on thanking God for being the constant in the midst of the winds of change that happen throughout our lives.  We ate, and then ate some more.  We needed to with all of the food we had.  With eight guys and two dogs we had 18 potatoes, 20 eggs, a dozen stadium brats and 20 ounces of Colby jack cheese.  I forgot to add the salt and pepper, and a few of the potatoes got a little dark, but ask any of them whether they cared or not.  The cocoa was only slightly warmer than luke-warm (wrong side of the flames), and the orange juice was sitting comfortably back in our refrigerator at home, but ask any of them whether they cared or not.

      Trust has come to this bunch of renegades by spending time together over the last few years; time hiking and paddling a river in addition to working and teaching at school.  Because of that trust, you feel as though you can pretty much be yourself, and that alone feels pretty good.  After packing up we began our hike back, stopped for a group picture, emerged from the woods where we suddenly realized how much windier it actually was, and then came again to a little creek. 

Scott, Joe, Justin - Merel, Ted, Wes - Pups, Louie & Mike

It really wasn’t much of an obstacle, and luckily the temperatures were moderate in case someone slipped in.  It did provide, however, the opportunity to act as pioneers.  Through the use of ingenuity and perseverance we were able to forge ahead.  It also provided us the chance to act as boys; both running and jumping and running free, if only for a moment.  

Walking the rest of the way back in wet boots was at a minimum.  The “who, what and where” stays with the wind in the woods.  Like most good stories, it’s where they happen and where they remain.

            That same wind that carries our stories in fact is our story; or at least a part of it.  I like that this group of men all come from different places, with different backgrounds, and different up-bringing.  When I consider those things, our difference in ages, our different world views, and yet the way we band together and appreciate each other’s company, I can’t help but smile.

            We drove back, said our goodbyes, I unpacked a little, picked up my daughter from a friend’s house, and then fell asleep for a solid hour or more.  I only awoke when a blast of wind slammed against the front of the house.  The wind, like my morning with the Gulo Adventure Clan, was strangely comforting.

            See you along The Way…

“Life, you’ll notice, is a story.  Life doesn’t come to us like a math problem.  It comes to us the way that a story does, scene by scene.  You wake up.  What will happen next?  You don’t get to know – you have to enter in, take the journey as it comes.” (Epic by John Eldredge-Nelson Books, Nashville-2004)

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I like the song "Renegades" by X Ambassadors (and not just because I drive an old Jeep...nope, still haven't washed off the dust from my trip to the Pigeon River Country of Northern Michigan...for the last two years)...
The "Official" video rocks in the way that it not only has the song, but it also shows how different people with various "Challenges" are able to succeed because of their team of support personnel that serve and help them to achieve their dreams and goals...Blind people lifting weights, skate boarding and riding bikes...a one armed boxer...the wrestler and rock climber with no limbs...not to mention the very end of the video where it shows the band members getting out of their Jeep (not covered in Michigan Dirt) and walking through an alley to where they are playing in a concert...the lead singer/guitar player (Sam Harris) is leading his older brother Casey who is the keyboard player for the band and who is also blind...

CLICK ON THE VIDEO & CRANK IT UP!

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And if you like the song, here is the hour long version…I often times put it on at school when I’m working, and listen to it over and over…

X Ambassadors - Renegades {hour version}