Thoughts From Ely Minnesota

This past week I was fortunate enough to spend a week in the Boundary Waters up in Minnesota. It was a very memorable experience that I would gladly repeat a hundred times over.
   
Up there in the lakes where nature is barely touched by man made me look at material things in a new light. When I was younger, I disliked the outdoors, couldn't stand bugs (still don't like them all that much) or animals and trees and flowers I could really care less. No the outdoorsman I was not, and I still am not  a rugged, bearded, rough and tough outdoorsy type but I have learned that the wilderness is a great place to meditate, pray and think about what God has done and in today's materialistic world it helps to get away from plastics, metals and all other shiny things that entice us everyday here in America.

 It could just be my opinion, but I do believe the average teenager today is spoiled rotten. Not all of us but a lot of us have more than we could ever need. We have more food, clothing, toys, gadgets, social interaction, and distractions than any other previous generation. And is just me or do we seem to be on the brink of a horrific downfall? How close are we to being forced over the edge, and into a world  with no modern conveniences? That might be a little bit to gloom and doom but indeed I have this feeling that we are getting way too comfortable. Going camping in the Boundary Waters where you have to carry everything you need with you in a canoe is a great in giving one a sense of  what is needed and what is not. And so in camping I found a great way to just live off of a minimal amount of comforts and pleasures.

Our campsite had this huge rock known as pride rock, that you could sit on and look out at the lake it was a great view and was absolute perfect for sitting and thinking. One day alone on pride rock I thought to myself how everything that God was so beautiful and so ingenious and then I compared this lake and its islands to Man's greatest cities, and I thought how finite we are and how ugly man's creations are compared to God's! It hit me that God's wilderness is infinitely better than man's cities and how much better it is to be out in the untouched wilderness than the filthy and trashfilled city. Don't get me wrong I understand that cities are necessary and I'm not some tree huger but I do now realize what I've been missing in not getting out and enjoying God's creation.

Well folks I'll try to write more and think about this stuff more and get it out there for whoever is reading this if there is anybody still reading this. And so I leave you with the encouragement to get out and discover God's creation! Go Camping!