Alaska.

A collection of thoughts about wilderness, words and His wonders. 

As a final adventure before we all parted ways, I went with some of my high school friends to Alaska. Alaska has by far been the most beautiful place I have ever been. I am currently sitting on a balcony overlooking a snow sprinkled mountain range with nothing but my laptop, bible, and about 5 layers of clothing. The layers are not only because I am not used to the weather here, but also because I did not have my mom with me to help me magically fit all of my clothing back into the suitcase for my trip home. Naturally, I am wearing double what I would have otherwise worn, in order to get into the airport with all my belongings (yes, I am aware that this is something I need to be working on before launch since my mom will not be able to help me pack on the Race). 

Alaska has been so good for my soul. It has filled a longing deep in me that I am usually unaware I have. To see the brightest green on leaves, to hike an uncomfortable distance in the cold rain only to witness a waterfall in the middle of a mountain, to see little pockets of heaven in the vast forests, to feel my own smallness as I gazed up at the monstrous trees…never have I known how abundantly quenching the outdoors could be.

While my friends would say I am a city girl, (craving the chaos, people, tall buildings and the thrill of a night out in the town) sometimes deep down I can imagine myself settling somewhere like this. Being surrounded by His creation feels like sitting up close and personal with Him. It gives me stability and is medicine for the parts of me that feel trapped in a world that is not my home. 

I could go on and on about the amazing hikes, the intense white water rafting that resulted in more breathtaking sites, and the midnight drives to Flattop mountain overlooking Anchorage.  My personal favorite however was the late-night hot tub talks while watching a 2:00 AM sunset. While I could list all the various landscapes that seemed to come right out of The Sound Of Music, for the first time in my life I can’t actually find the right words to capture what I have seen or felt this week. Usually, my problem is having too much to say, but nothing I try to muster up does His creativity any justice. 

I was listening to the song Good Grace by Hillsong on one of the car rides through the mountains and was completely overwhelmed with gratitude. The lyrics are so simple but so true, “Good grace, good God”. I am in complete awe that He has made this world for us. Every moose we saw, every raindrop that rolled off of our jackets, every leaf, every wave was made for us. How good is our God that he created this? How good is our God that he allows us to enjoy it and make our joy complete in expressions of praise?

C.S Lewis says

“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with.”

I understand this quote in a new way today because I have experienced “the mountain valley of unexpected grandeur,” leaving me wanting to proclaim that grandeur to the world. I tried to take pictures until I ran out of storage, but like my words, the pictures don’t and will never do His creation justice. Yet, I am sitting here amazed that God would invite me to praise and allow me to proclaim His glory. Even now, my joy is made complete by putting my praise into these very words you are now reading. 

I found myself reading in 1 John 1 this week. The first words in the bible are

“in the beginning God Created the Heavens and the Earth,”

and the first words in the Gospel of John are

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

These realities are what John refers to when talking about the beginning in 1 John 1,

“that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have touched with our hands..we proclaim to you as a testimony of these truths” (v.1-3).

Being in Alaska has helped me understand what John means when he says that “we have seen with our own eyes”. He means that not only is the way we live our lives a testimony of the redemption story but LOOK AROUND. Even in your city, go outside. Look at the sky. There is no way anything other than a good God created this world, and I have been reminded of that every day in Alaska. If it was possible, this trip has made me even more excited about the adventures ahead on the World Race, because I know that this trip has been just a small taste of His wonder and creativity that I am about to feast on. I am longing to be stripped raw of all the material things this world has to offer and live only in His world and His Word for the next year of my life. 

What grace I felt a little nudge to read 1 John while in Alaska, as there I was met with this passage about light and darkness.

“God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (v.5).

When I first read these words it was midnight and the sun was still shining bright. I laughed to myself as I looked up at his beautiful creation all lit up in the middle of the night. Every time I woke up to see a bright sky I was reminded that this is what God is like in our lives. Just like he lights up the night in Anchorage, Alaska, he takes my darkness and my shame and he turns it into a testimony of His light.

In C.S Lewis’ quote he says, “the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.” In 1 John 1:4, John seems to be saying the same thing when he proclaims that

“we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete”.

Expressing our praise is so much more than a command, it is a gift. It allows us to have complete delight in not only His creation, but in Him

John is a lover of words like me. He ran to his pen when he wanted to praise or proclaim, just like I run to my keyboard. As happy as it makes me that someone somewhere is reading these words I have written, and as thankful as I am that you have joined me on my journey, the real reason I am writing this is so that my delight is expressed and the joy I feel in my Father’s Alaskan handiwork is made complete.