Christmas 1998. It was during my oldest son's junior year in high school. I gave him a homemade "gift certificate" for a week-long canoe trip in the
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Coolest. Gift. Ever. And his other wrapped packages reflected the theme: birch bark canoe tree ornament, guide book with maps, book about first aid in the wilderness, some backpacking recipes, etc.
I love planning for trips, even if the plans fall through. Even if, along the way, we come up with a "better plan" or something surprising and wonderful causes us to take a detour.
I remember spending hours and hours--both with John and alone--planning the trip. We ventured north from Pella, Iowa the next summer--it turns out now that we were in the Boundary Waters only a few days before the July 4
"blowdown"--and the actual trip was nothing like we had planned. It rained at least four days of the seven we were there. Our long hours of planning were largely wasted--we had "bit off more than we could chew" and ended up changing our route after the first long--and I mean REALLY long--and windy day. By the end of that first day, our muscles were strained, our spirits were sapped, and John's cool new hat from Cabela's was at the bottom of the lake. We tried to go back for it, in spite of the wind. Trying to turn from heading straight into the wind and then enduring the dangerous crosswind and losing time and energy on this lost cause. But the hat was gone forever.
Lots of lessons. Oh, we still had a marvelous time. I'll be forever grateful to the group of fishermen from Wisconsin who welcomed us to their campfire after John and I had set up camp with the sun already low in the sky. We were dead tired but we enjoyed their company, the fabulous view of the lake, the hot food--red beans and rice as I recall... and we reveled in the fact that after such a day we were still alive! (Well, not revelry as in wild dancing or anything, but we had a sense of great satisfaction!) Both John Calvin and Abraham Kuyper were agree that we should enjoy all of God's good gifts as grace. And when the gracious and wise men from Wisconsin offered me a jigger of whiskey my heart was glad!
However many blessings we expect from God, His infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts (John Calvin).
Another Lesson. Planning may be for naught, so unless the planning is a whole lot of fun--which it often is--don't spend an inordinate amount of time planning when you could be doing. John and I would have been better served canoeing on a few Iowa lakes a few times rather than spending yet another Saturday afternoon poring over maps. This is largely my recurring foible, not John's. So while I'm spending a bit of time planning this series, I'm not outlining Randy's Institutes or anything. Rather, I'm gonna just do it. Just walk my way through the 52 Lord's Days of the Heidelberg Catechism, and see where it all leads. My congregation has no choice, really--they're coming along for the journey. You, however, can choose. I refuse to bite off more than I can chew, but I'll probably post about once a week. Mostly some reflections and perhaps even a few of the sermons. And maybe it will turn into a conversation. We'll see.
On the second day of our BWCAW adventure, we were still planning to follow our original route. But we couldn't figure out where one of the portages was. It was a beautiful day of canoeing. We just couldn't find where we were supposed to go. At the end of a very long and somewhat dangerous portage, we came to a small body of water which I was almost certain could NOT be the right way to go. But John thought we should go forward in spite of it all. And, after some discussion, he brought me to the brink of bad words by saying, "I don't see why we can't just see where it might go--" I interrupted by shouting, "Because we're LOST!" We smile about that now, and in retrospect he knows I was right. We turned around, retraced our route, and landed back on the beautiful peninsula we knew and loved so well--with those guys from Wisconsin. And their whiskey.
Sometimes the plan needs to be thrown out. Steps retraced. Familiar lessons repeated. Just find your way home. Even if that's with the cheese-heads.
We've got a good map with 52 Lord's Days and all. But maybe, along the way, I'll get lost and need to start over. That will be OK, too. Because the beginning of the catechism is home for me. Wherever life's journeys take me, I can always come home to this:
Q&A 1
Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A. That I am not my own,1 but belong—body and soul, in life and in death2—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.3
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,4 and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.5 He also watches over me in such a way6 that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven;7 in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.8
Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life9 and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.10
