The correlation or lack thereof between bodily and spiritual disciplines.
Over the past year or so I have been fairly consistently driven toward physically challenging my body. This has primarily worked itself out in the weight room and various sports. Recently I engaged my body in what, to my memory’s recollection, is the most physically demanding endeavor I’ve ever embarked upon.
In high school I once attended a basketball practice that followed a very poor loss in which we conditioned for approximately 2 and a half hours. I was sick. I threw up like 13 times. Coach Bowen said it was new record for one of his practices.
I once rode my Wal-Mart mountain bike 40+ miles in 90° heat. I had undergone ACL reconstruction about 4 months earlier. I passed out by Ft. Washita and had to hitchhike home. My face was covered with salt.
But I believe that my recent venture surpasses these and others on the scale of mental and physical demand.
Haba Snow Mountain is just over 17,700 feet in elevation. Tiger Leaping Gorge is 9 miles. We hiked and climbed these two natural wonders in 3 days. The gorge was perhaps the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The Yangtze river, roaring at points, tucked between two mountains that reached well over 3 miles high. The shear power of this scene stamped on my soul a undeniable feeling of insignificance. It wasn’t necessarily a helpless feeling, however. It was ok by me, that God would create something so vast and mesmeric. The expanses of the universe and magnitude of the stars are theoretically overwhelming, but I was engaged in this geological enigma. I was a player in its story. I stepped on its rocks and pushed through its branches. I breathed in its air and smelled its aromas. It caused my calves to cramp and lungs to wince.
One of the mountains that shapes the gorge.
At Haba Village we embarked on our ascent to base camp. Six hours saw us resting on hard beds at 13,100 feet; One of our companions vomiting because his lungs couldn’t dump enough oxygen into his erythrocytes. A good friend and bottle of oxygen saw him down the mountain the next morning. The other two awoke from a mostly sleepless night by a tonal “Hello” at 3:51 am. With my quads and gastrocnemii reeling from Tiger Leaping Gorge’s bite and my lungs working overtime to keep my muscles fueled we began our approach to conquer what would be the largest mountain in the continental United States by 3,198 feet, the 3rd largest mountain counting Alaska, and the 6th largest mountain in all of North America. It took us a little over four hours to complete the remaining 4,300 vertical feet. About 30 minutes into our climb every step became a challenge. Seriously. Never mind the 45° plane the glacier gave us. The weight of oxygen deprived atmosphere was absolutely devastating.
Backwards view during the ascent to Haba base camp.
Step, step. Rest. Step. Rest. S…t….e…, rest. At one point I made it a goal to take 100 steps before I stopped. Luckily the guide stopped at 80. Higher up the mountain I later learned that my friend had made a goal for 20 steps. He had to stop at 18. It was one of those experience in which every single cell in my body begged to stop. To lay down and sleep. But I had already made up my mind that I was making it to the top of this beast. And in reality, its not like the descent was going to be a piece of cake either.
When we collapsed on the summit I did not yet feel the euphoria of victory. I may have remained standing after all the snares Haba placed before me, but I did it awkwardly stumbling along. As the hours passed so did my weariness. With renewed strength came a feeling of pride. And a newfound desire to conquer the things in my life that are not pleasing to Father. I began to understand with deeper personal conviction the allusions to mountains in the Word.
- Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.
- the one who by his strength established the mountains, being pgirded with might;
- In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
- The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them.
- Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down! Touch the mountains so that they smoke!
That is a mighty and powerful God! But I’ve realized that there is a vast difference between geological mountains and spiritual mountains. One can be conquered with the right amount of training, appropriate gear, and sheer exertion of will. I’m learning more and more that the other can only be conquered by realizing that they are unconquerable.
Rather than doing the climbing ourselves we have a Divine Father who with the weight of his thumb makes the high places low. When we look to him and learn to walk in His grace we find that rather than approaching the foot of ominous mountains we walk in the wake of a mighty Guide who leads us to green pastures and cool waters.
I am not insinuating that there will not be moments of wrestling with sin, even debilitating wrestling. But I do believe that setting one’s eyes on the Father and walking close to Him will lead you on paths that are far less treacherous than those you will trod thinking that this whole thing is about exerting your will over the carnal things of this world. Walk in the ravine of His grace.
Deciduous forest at roughly 12,000 feet on Haba
I’m Into It
Although I do not presume, or desire for that matter, to be at the center of your interests I do want to apologize for the lack of updates recently. Things are ramping up here in LJ. Last weekend I went to a neighboring province to do some learning. While geographically speaking LJ and XC are only about 200 miles apart, living in the mountains can greatly diminish the expedience of a day trip. Fifteen hours on a Chinese bus is not something I would wish upon anyone, but am glad that I can stuff that in my bag of “been there done that.”
I am leaving tomorrow to do some traveling. I am headed to Hainan Island for a few days of chillaxing, and then to Hong Kong for a few days of being a lame tourist…
I promise to bring back lots of pictures and hopefully a couple of sweet stories as well. I start school as soon as I get back from vacation. I am extremely excited. I’ll be doing 20 hours a week of language courses. The opportunity to take classes is one that I am very grateful for, and I will approach it as an opportunity to cultivate a love and knowledge of the N. language and her people.
I wish I had some more time to let you guys know in greater detail what is going on in my life, but alas, the beach is calling! There will be more time for that later.
Hainan Island
Hearts and Hand Grenades,
Jared
Quick Update
Village Home Gramps: This dude and I took the cows out to graze and get some exercise. He had a lazy eye and yelled a lot. My kind of dude.
I spent last week in a N. village. Had a busy weekend. Going back to a new village for the week tomorrow. I will update next weekend with some extensive thoughts and pictures. Hope all is well with you. Keep lifting me up!
beauty, humility, and the frustration of being unable to communicate
My first full day here in LJ my friend took me around the city for a couple of hours. Later that night we played basketball at the court in front of our apartment. The guys really enjoyed me being able to dunk the ball. Then after playing for a few hours we lifted weights at the gym. It was actually pretty nice, certainly functional, and for 100 kuai (15$) you can’t beat it.
On day 2, with a bit more ambition shoring my sales, I set off into LJ alone. I left, road a bus around town, and decided to hoof it for a while to gain some bearings (i still don’t know where north is if the clouds are covering the mountain). So I ended up getting lost. I knew I could call a friend and get directions, but I decided to forego any help and get myself out of the mess I had gotten into. In the states if you’re lost it really is pretty easy to get yourself found…read the street signs, ask an attendant at a gas station, etc. But when you are in the big C no one speaks English and all the signs are in characters of which I have no clue how to read. So what would have probably been a 10 minute ordeal in the states turned into about 3 hours of walking, and walking, and turning around, and walking some more. The one consolation was that even in the midst of being lost and uncertain of how to get home, I couldn’t avoid the shear beauty of this place.
New Town
Old Town
Stream on a back street in New Town
More coming soon!
I Made It!
Admit it…you thought i would never get here. My head is still swimming from the shear newness of everything. While it is refreshing it is also very overwhelming at the moment. So rather than searching for the right words, imagery, whatever, to paint a picture of what is going on around me, I’ll let a few pictures do the talking.
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- From inside Hong Kong International Airport
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- From the plane on the way into LJ
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- An 8:00am view from my bedroom window
More to come soon…
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