{"id":2023,"date":"2022-10-05T04:10:19","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T08:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2023"},"modified":"2022-10-05T04:10:19","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T08:10:19","slug":"dont-miss-the-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/05\/dont-miss-the-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Miss the Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.

When Gary Haugen, founder of the International Justice Mission, was ten years old, he went camping with his father and his two older brothers on Mt. Rainier \u2013 the massive, snow-covered volcanic dome that towers over Seattle.\u00a0
\u00a0
The upper slopes of Mt. Rainier are not for people seeking casual day hikes.\u00a0
\u00a0
Haugen still remembers the summer day when he and his dad and his brothers reached the top of the meadow trails and stood before the rugged path beckoning the most vigorous climbers to attempt the summit.\u00a0
\u00a0
There was a large warning sign.<\/strong>
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
In his book Just Courage <\/em>Haugen writes, \u201cWith a text undoubtedly drafted by lawyers, the sign warned of every conceivable horror that awaited those who ventured beyond.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t feeling particularly tired, but my little stomach ached as I looked up at the massive rock formations and snow fields that went up and up and up.\u00a0
\u00a0
\u201cMy dad suggested we try to reach Camp Muir, the base camp used by climbers heading for the summit, and my brothers eagerly accepted.\u00a0 Dad assured me I could make it, that he would help me and that the view and the triumph would be more than worth the effort \u2013 and that it would be marvelous to do it together.\u201d
\u00a0
Haugen, however, began to think it might be wiser to pay attention to those lawyers who had taken all that time to make such a nice sign.
\u00a0
Overwhelmed by anxieties, and not wanting to feel like the little kid who wouldn\u2019t be able to keep up, he begged his father to let him stay at the visitor center.\u00a0
\u00a0
In truth, the Mt. Rainier visitor center has all the amenities that a tourist might want.\u00a0 It\u2019s got a snack bar, interesting displays, stuffed wild animals, and videos that run on a continuous loop.\u00a0 Gary\u2019s dad earnestly tried to talk him into joining the hike.\u00a0 But the visitor center now seemed unusually interesting to him, and conveniently close at hand.
\u00a0
And<\/em> entirely safe<\/em>.\u00a0
\u00a0
Gary Haugen went on to spend what he describes as the longest afternoon of his ten-year-old life.\u00a0
\u00a0
He ended up feeling like a prisoner of the visitor center.\u00a0 He recalls, \u201cDad and my brothers returned flushed with their triumph.\u00a0 Their faces were red from the cold and their eyes clear with delight.\u00a0 They were wet from the snow, famished, dehydrated, and nursing scrapes from the rocks and ice, but on the long drive home they had something else.\u00a0 They had stories and an unforgettable day with their dad on a great mountain.\u00a0 I, of course, revealed nothing, insisting that it was my favorite day of the whole vacation.\u201d
\u00a0
Five decades later, however, Haugen still feels pangs of regret.\u00a0 As he put it, he took the trip but missed the adventure.
\u00a0
It\u2019s not an exaggeration to say there\u2019s an epidemic of disillusionment among people who signed up years ago to \u201cgo out and change the world.\u201d\u00a0
\u00a0
But instead of high adventure, so many of us feel stuck at the visitor center.\u00a0
\u00a0
What we\u2019ve learned is that boring, predictable amenities for spiritual tourists can never satisfy what our hearts really hunger for.\u00a0
\u00a0
What does it look like to attempt the high slopes?\u00a0 Go and serve.\u00a0 <\/em>Help the poor.\u00a0 Do something for someone who can never pay you back.\u00a0 Take risks.\u00a0 Give away your time and your money to something you believe in.\u00a0 Ask God to stir your heart with a cause so challenging, so daunting, and so worthwhile that you won\u2019t be able to accomplish it unless he helps you every step of the way.
\u00a0
Take the trip.\u00a0
\u00a0
But don\u2019t miss the adventure<\/em>.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here. When Gary Haugen, founder of the International Justice Mission, was ten years old, he went camping with his father and his two older brothers on Mt. Rainier \u2013 the massive, snow-covered volcanic dome that towers over Seattle.\u00a0\u00a0The upper slopes of Mt. Rainier are not for people seeking casual day hikes.\u00a0\u00a0Haugen still… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[399],"class_list":["post-2023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adventure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2025,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2023\/revisions\/2025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}