Chad Arnold Blog
My friend Chad has started a blog…This is my friend who recently went through a liver transplant. The back story is heartbreaking, but even in the sadness, there is hope.
Would you please visit, read, join the conversation and allow your life to be changed?
I feel like I’m a walking contradiction sometimes.
One day I wanna see an action movie, but then the next day I want to watch something to make me weep.
I usually love my stilettos, but wow I love sliding into my flip flops.
I love dressing professional but then again, I can’t get enough of casual Fridays.
I am super super affectionate with my kids, but not usually super affectionate with other people.
I love screaming my lungs out at ball games, but then again, I really do like the theater.
Isn’t that just funny how we are? Full of contradictions and oppositions. Think how boring we’d be if we never had variations in our taste and desires.
What’s a big contradiction in your life?
We had another crazy storm here in Colorado last night. I don’t know if you guys have these where you live, but you can stand at the doorway and watch the rain come pouring straight down…Literally in sheets, then, next thing you know, there’s hail falling all over the place. For a minute you try to think of how you can possibly save your garden from the damage of the hail, or if you have a car laying outside, you sacrifice your noggin to get your car in and away from the hail damage.
Soon enough the storm passes and you’re left standing there staring at the newly vibrant looking grass, trees and flowers. The air is immediately cooler and you can sense that everything is clean. I love walking outside after the rain. I am able to breathe just a little easier and drink in the freshness of everything around me.
I’m thankful for Colorado rains… just like the earth, my soul is refreshed after a good rain.
There are two people in my life who make me laugh every single day of my life: MY KIDS!!!
I feel like you should know this about them…they are HI-larious.
They make faces, they crack jokes. They know when to be funny and when to make others laugh. Most of all they know how to make me laugh.
Today, I am so thankful for my silly, funny kiddies…my sweet babies.
My sweet kids
There’s this place that we pseudo athletic types (and real athletic types too) in Colorado Springs like to go called the “Incline.” It’s the remains of an old roadbed from a scenic railway. It’s not that long of a climb…just a little under a mile of straight climb…actually, it’s got an average grade of a little over 40%, but the steepest section is at a 68% grade. So, when you stand at the bottom and look up, you think how hard can it be? Well, when you realize that you will gain over 2000 ft in elevation in less than a mile…well, lemme just say, it gets your heart pumping!
Bottom of the Incline
So, the other day I “did” the incline and as I was climbing it, I was really seeking God’s wisdom for my life. I was in a mode of climbing in every sense. There were moments where everything in my body was burning from exertion, but I felt like I had to keep going. Since I’ve done this little hike a few times, I know that there’s a false peak that you see from the bottom. I also know that there are people doing this climb for the first time just trying to summit the false peak thinking they’ll reach the top.
Looking down from the false peak
I’ve been on a steady uphill climb in my life for a while now, so often when I’m in the mountains, God really uses those times to show me the life analogy . It hit me hard that day that God allows me to climb each step, sometimes with excruciating pain so that I will appreciate the true peak when I finally reach it. There have been lots of false summits in my life in the past few weeks…actually the past few years. Some of these false peaks have shown up in my life through family, work, finances, personal, even spiritual issues. Along with the false peaks have been false truths. Stuff I’ve told myself, sometimes stuff others have said about me or to me…those things have become the stumbling blocks as I’ve been trying to climb…getting in my way, setting me back, making me question why I’m climbing in the first place. Sometimes I catch myself wishing to get to the false peak so that I can then give up and quit by selling myself short and saying, “well, at least I tried.”
I’m telling you, I’m in a strange place in my life because that last climb showed me so clearly how the false summits and false truths set me back for a time and possibly even for a season, but the reality is that God is still God. The same one who created the mountains is making the way for me by allowing me to take my direction from him one step at a time. People may offer explanation or discounts or even blame, but the reality in my life is that God controls my life. I will make it to the top, I have that assurance because God’s truth will always prevail, and when I get there…the view will be so worth it!
View from the top
“Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast.”
Psalm 36:6
“Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,”
Psalm 46:2
