Luci Shaw - Adventure of Ascent: Field Notes from a Lifelong Journey

The climb of my life offered to you in this story has been both arduous and thrilling. As Ive hiked this long slope of living, there have been crevasses to avoid or scramble out of, and mountain paths that wind high and low through immense evergreen forests. Ive stumbled often, have fallen, been bruised and abraded. Ive had to avoid sharp rock outcroppings and endured earth tremors as well as being awestruck by magnificent views of heaven and earth.

I remember how, from a mountain peak, Moses mind was marked with a vision of the Promised Land for his wilderness-wandering people. And how though he never entered it for himself, he gave them hope for their future. I have no certain vision for the future beyond desires and longings; I have some regrets but also great gratefulness. I can look back and see how my trajectory flung a banner across the foothills.

I often wish that my life had unspooled neatly inch by inch across this varied landscape, like a thread that can be examined for flaws and tangles and shrinkage as it unwinds. But since it cannot be rewound, I have to rely on memory and experience and physical evidencephotos and journal entries and lettersto tell you some of what these recent years are like.

I want to describe to you my journey, in what ways it is unique, just as yours is. I want to convey to you how morning and evening light differ, how the lungs and leg muscles ache as they climb, searching for footholds, often resting to take in the view over a pleat of the gradient.

I want to describe how good it is, sometimes, to simply let grass grow under my feet or feel the sun rest on my shoulder blades, or to pick a few berries from the bushes, or to watch the sun rise and set and rise again.

It has been, it is, a great adventure, this expedition we call human existence, though it is not always one that we might have chosen. Its a partnership, really, between the One who gives each of us life to start with and what we do with that incomparable gift.

Often, shadows like storm clouds have shielded the sun, or a thick mist has disoriented me. Snow squalls and a biting wind often pick up, and then I huddle with other climbers, refugees in small shelters like mountaineers in alpine huts during a blizzard.

Just as the sun is often hidden behind clouds, Gods face has often seemed to be obscured, and then, when I feel most alone in my human frailty, I feel abandoned and vulnerable. Ive learned a lot about waiting, and longing, for the light to return, for travel fatigue to fade as energy seeps into my bones again.

I plan to tell you about my frequent need to stop and check and find my bearings again, as if with a spiritual GPS. I surmise that there are no straight lines to the top, no mile markers to tell me when I might summit this mountain. When the peak is outlined cleanly against a glowing sky it looks attainable, even welcoming, but I know that such views can be deceptive; it may be a false summit with the real one much farther away than I can see. Warning signs about avalanches or steep declivities show up and cause anxiety for all of us on this trek.

This is a story with many stops and starts. Some questions with no immediate answers. Doubts that weigh heavily and are not easily resolved. Many admissions of failure. High hopes and purposes as well as detours and uncertainties. And triumphs and revelations that sometimes overwhelm my astonished soul.

Yes, this has been a magnificent adventure. I invite you to come and view it with me!

The View from Here