Currently I am sitting at 35,000 feet as I make my way to Colorado. This is a day I have been anticipating for a few months. I will be joining many other men for the Wild At Heart Boot Camp at Crooked Creek Ranch. It’s hard to describe my excitement for this event. As I wrote the other day, I have been making some serious intentional changes in my life and for my family. One of those is to no longer be a lone ranger in how I do life. To connect with more people, especially men of faith and to grow in my walk with God. This journey  to Colorado is a part of that. Also to make sure I spent more time waking with God every single day and not being only partially invested in my faith.

So as I sit on this flight, which by the way is the first time I have flown anywhere that was not work related, I am in awe of the  beauty I see looking over God’s awesome creation.  I have some times wondered if I could ever step away and do something like this. I sit in anticipation of what God will have in store for me. It’s a big journey into  unknown territory to a place I have never been.  I look forward to meeting new people, but above all to be at 10,000 feet in the remote wilderness where I  can have time to sit in solitude with just me and God.

As many of us do, I have often hid behind a fig leaf. An imposter would often reel it’s head and I walked through life, often ignoring God, being the nice guy, and trudging along doing what the world was expecting of me. God calls us all to so much more in our lives. To be after His heart, surrender to Him, and lead others to Him in many ways. As my wife and I were talking last night, she help me realize that God blessed me with a special gift to write. We all have a number of God given talents, and we should use those for His full glory. We have to choose whether to or not, however.  I am resolved to further use this gift to do just that. I no longer will sit on the sidelines and let my false self run the show.

Part of my daily reading today came out of Wild At Heart, which this Boot Camp is based on. It said, “The false self, our plan for redemption, seems so right to us. It shields us from pain and secures us a little love and admiration. But the false self is a lie; the whole plan is built on pretense. It’s a deadly trap. God loves us too much to leave us there. So he thwarts us, in many, many different ways.” God is always pursuing us. We have to resolve to let Him find us and help us to put our false self behind us and be authentic as His children.

So with that, I am taking part in a new adventure.  I have prayed about this day often for guidance and for God to open my heart to it all. I sometimes questioned my motives, but realized that the enemy has been trying to stop me from going. He knows that he his losing this battle and as he often does, he tries to fill us with doubt, fear, uncertainty, and false accusations. He does not relent, and the further away you pull, the harder he will fight. This is when we need to put on God’s armor; the helmet of salvation,  shield of faith, sword of the spirit,  and breastplate  of righteousness.  We must fight back. His armor is taking me to the unknown with confidence and strength I have never had. As Uncle Si says, “It’s on like bing-bong, jack!” I am ready to do battle and not let my heart fall to the enemy or this world.

I am extremely excited about what the next four days has in store for me. Look forward to the connections and growth. My heart is wide open for it all. I am blessed to have such an awesome wife who supports me in all this. God is doing awesome things in her heart as well which is bringing our marriage to another level. I will write about the experience after I return home. Till then, God Bless.