One of the things my parents unintentionally passed on to me is a keen understanding of music history.  No, I never spent hours being lectured about the great classical composers of the 15^th-17^th centuries- I learned about greats like Patsy Cline, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, The Righteous Brothers, Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys, The Byrds, Diana Ross and a whole litany of artists that span the early days of Mo Town, Rock-n-Roll, Blues, Country and Pop.  Whenever the family would load up in the trusty old Chevy to traverse the hot Mexican countryside to do the Lord’s work, we’d escape reality between stops with dad’s music collection of what we called “The Cruisin Oldies.”   To this day, I get those songs stuck in my head.  As a matter of fact, I woke up this morning with a  line  from  “Midnight Train to Georgia” stuck in my head.  You know the part, where Gladys Knight proclaims.  “I’d rather live in his world than live without him in mine.”

After singing that line to myself for the 400^th time, I started thinking about what it really means. Gladys is declaring that she’d willingly give up everything for the man of her dreams.  She’d forego her “own world” to be with him in his.  And that brings us to the place in which I find myself today.

See, I’ve been at a veritable loss for words lately because God is revealing himself to me in ways that I’ve never experienced.  Through His word, Christ is showing me that He is not the means to an end…He IS the end.  He is the prize at the end of the race, the treasure after which I should be running.  If I were to lose everything but still have Him, that would be far more than enough for me. I now realized that I’d rather live in His world than live without Him in mine.  I agree with Jesus about who He says I am and I want to live on His terms, not mine.

A few years back I got the privilege of working with Shane Barnard & Shane Everett.  They were doing a weekend-long youth rally at my church and one day we were all sitting around talking before one of the evening services.  Someone asked them about their plans as musicians, where they felt like the Lord was leading them and how they planned on continuing their musical career.  I was pretty interested in what their answer was going to be…because at the time I played in a band and playing music was all I ever wanted to do with my life.  But their response to my friend’s question shocked me.  The Shanes jumped in quickly, almost interrupting my friend and said “The minute we feel the Lord leading us to do something other than music is the minute we’ll put down our guitars and do something else.  We do this because we feel like it’s what God has asked of us, but we’re just waiting for Him to tell us to stop. We just want to love Jesus and serve him…not matter what.”

Or maybe my wife said it best.  The description on her blog reads, “I have discovered a God who is worth everything. And to have Him, He asks from me just that: EVERYTHING. I have decided that He is worth it.”

This is the ground on which I stand.

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On the morning of the 23rd, I woke up at 4:15 in my nice warm bed in San Diego.  After spending half the day getting from San Diego to Alaska, I landed in Anchorage, walked off the plane and immediately felt the cool air of the Alaskan Spring.  The towering mountains were still half-covered with snow, a layer of ice still blanketed most of Lake Hood, but it was undoubtedly Spring.  The sun was shining and it was a balmy 46 degrees that day.

Next came a quick flight to Kodiak Island on a half-passenger, half-cargo jet.  Dad picked me up and we met Aaron at the float-plane docks.

As soon as we landed, we off-loaded the plane, and began setting up camp.  We inflated the zodiac boat and took it for a quick spin to make sure the motor was running well.  Unbelievably, we weren’t gone five minutes before we saw the first brown bear combing the beach, he heard us coming and bolted for the hills.

That night I laid in my sleeping bag, amazed as I thought about the stark differences between where I started off that morning and where I ended up that night.  The events of the following 6 days would constantly remind me those differences.

Here is an excerpt that Aaron wrote on a hunting forum describing Day 2:

The next morning we got up early.  After breakfast we loaded up in the
boat and headed out.  When we rounded the corner guess who walking on
the beach… Yep – our first night bear.  We beached and started
judging.  He was a good bear, definitely a boar (could see his BOYZ
swinging) and had no rubs.  But I had a real hard time thinking my
hunt was about to end.  He was maybe (I SAY MAYBE) 8’.  We opted for a
closer look so we stalked above the bear on the bluff.  What we knew –
was that he was oblivious to our presence and continued feeding along
the beach.  What we did NOT know – was that he was about to meet us on
top.  He popped up about 25 yards in front of us, head down just walking
along like he had not a care in the world.  He was heading straight
for us.  We stood up, rifles ready and I began talking to him.  I’m
not exactly sure of the words or even the language that I spoke but I
remember looking at him and realizing he was not the bear I wanted.
NOW I just had to convince him to leave without a fight.  Luckily for
us he did just that.  Once he looked up he slowly turned and walked
away…  MAN-O-Man what a way to start day 2.

That was an exhilarating experience, 25 yards from one of the largest predators on earth, and my brother is telling me NOT to shoot.  That is a strange feeling.

After 5 days of cold, wind, sun, snow, rain, rinse, wash, repeat, we finally spotted a bear.  It was way up on a mountain, in the snow.  Aaron, dad and I discussed going after this one.  Dad said he wasn’t about to attempt that hike.  I didn’t really blame him, nor did I necessarily think that Aaron & I should even attempt the hike. We debated the issue.  I asked what if we got up there and this stupid thing had moved…then what?  What if we get up there and it’s a small bear.  Looked like a good bear from way down below…but we might be mistaken. Aaron agreed…but he also had a hunch and felt like this bear had the markings of being a good sized bear with all the attributes he was looking for.

Finally, Aaron and I decided to go after the beast.  We agreed that we were about to embark on what could easily become the greatest OR the dumbest thing we ever decided to do together.  Either way, we committed to doing it.  Dad set up the spotting scope so he could watch the bear, as well as watch us as we tempted fate by climbing 1,800 feet up the mountain. We scarfed down some peanut butter for instant energy, readied our weapons and packs and headed off.

We hiked at a furious speed…made it to the top in just over two hours and prepared ourselves for what we were about to do.

Again, I will let Aaron tell this part:

The shot was tough because the bear was lying slightly behind a boulder.  We decided not to shoot but rather re-locate above the bear for a clear, unobstructed shot.  We post-holed through deep snow for the final 40 yards to put us smack-dab above the bear with a clear shot.  We used our trekking poles as bipods and settled in…

…When the shooting was done the bear rolled forward and off the cliff.  The free fall was not that far but the rolling and sliding did not stop for nearly 800 feet.

We spotted the dead bear below and decided a trip back to camp for food/water and dry clothes was in order.   After a camp re-supply we headed back up.  We found the bear wedged in an alder on a steep incline.  We decided it would be worth one last push vs. skinning on such a steep slope.  By the time it was done the bear was sitting on the beach.

And that is the end of my Kodiak Bear Hunting adventure with my brother and dad.  This trip made me so proud of both of them.  My brother is a true sportsman.  He has a love and respect for God’s creation that I aspire to obtain.  He is passionate about doing things the right way and making sure that he is responsible with the resources God has given us to enjoy.

Dad is patient and meticulous.  He’d sit for hours upon hours peering through binoculars, looking for a bear, watching the bald eagles hunt and feed, the seals playing in the bay, etc.  I could tell that dad was always thinking.  About what?  I don’t know.  Maybe he was just taking it all in.  He said it best when he looked at me and Aaron and said “I can’t think of another place I’d rather be than right here, right now.”

If you made it this far, I guess you deserve to see a few photos.

"Ginny" the bear

I think I'll frame this one

Me & Dad

Hermanos

Aaron

Cook Camp

Bear tracks

Bear carcass

Dad "glassing" for bears

View from the mountain we climbed

Leaving Three Saints Bay

On our way back to Kodiak

View from the plane

Dad looking down at Three Saints

What a great way to see the island

You could write a whole book based on the characters in that hotel.

Making it official with AK Fish & Game Dept.

A happy hunter at the Kodiak Island Brewery

Last week my sisters Julie and Becca and her husband Ricky flew in from Texas.  Mom, Dad and my brother, Aaron, took a break from life in Alaska to spend a week at Hacienda Whitt here in Chula Vista.  While here, we celebrated birthdays, anniversaries and life in general.  It was one  of the greatest weeks of my life.

Here is evidence of the mayhem.

Aaron and I picked these up off the ground just after a drunk frat boy fell on his face at the Irish Festival at Balboa Park

Me and Julie people-watching on Coronado Island

Pops and an old friend...the F4 Phantom. On the flight deck of the U.S.S. Midway

Coach & Becca at Seaport Village

Aaron REALLY liked IN-N-OUT Burgers

Mops & Pops looking pretty on Coronado Island

Thanks for a week that I will always remember.

A few years ago I met a guy (I will call him Bob) at a non-profit event I was attending.  Bob was a really nice guy.  We sat for a while at the fundraiser’s reception and talked under the beautiful Southern California night.  Bob asked me about my work and I could see the wheels turning in his head.  I could tell that Bob had an idea and eventually he revealed to me that he had some business deals in the works and he was in need of a multimedia person to help him.

A few weeks later Bob and I had lunch and he shared those ideas and plans.  He asked me if I was interested in working with him.  I was happy to get the work, so Bob and I quickly became friends.  We met for dinner and beers to begin developing our ideas and to get to know each other better.  But like many entrepreneurs, Bob had a lot of irons in the fire and so he’d kind of drop of the radar for a while.  A pattern developed with Bob.  He’d get excited about something, would ask me to start working on it and then I would go weeks…sometimes months without hearing from him.  Then suddenly I’d get a call from Bob.  He’d want to get together…catch up and see how life was treating me.  So we’d meet, Bob would get excited about some idea, he’d ask me to work on some stuff, I’d do what he asked and then he’d drop off the map again.

Finally I realized something about Bob.  He was a great guy but Bob wasn’t really interested in me as a person.  He was interested in what I brought to the table.  I had a skill set that he could benefit from and so Bob befriended me to take advantage of that skill set.  A friendship with me was merely a means to an end.

I mention Bob because I realized that the pattern he and I fell into is pretty common in ALL KINDS of relationships.  I think one of the biggest contributing problems is that people tend to be pretty selfish.  Relationships are viewed as a means to an end.  We spend a lot of time looking at people that we claim we love and cherish, but if you were to really get down to it, what we really mean is that they bring some kind of benefit to us.

Healthy relationships operate completely opposite to that, however.  And that’s why I think healthy relationships are becoming more and more scarce.  Marriages fall apart, children despise their parents, brothers and sisters resent each other, friends quit interacting and families quit functioning when the parties involved look at each other simply as a way to get what they ultimately want.  Look around you…you can’t deny that something is wrong.  It’s selfishness and until we break this self-centered cycle, we’re going to see dysfunction prevail.

The greatest tragedy of all, however, is that we treat God the same way.  Walk into an evangelical church sometime…you’re likely to hear someone telling you that if you love God and commit your way to him, then you’re going to be blessed by him.  It’s a “me focused” gospel that tries to convince you that if you follow Christ, you’re troubles are going to disappear.  So the focus is on making your troubles go away…not on God.

Our Lord is not the means to an end…He IS the end.  The bible tells us that when we follow Christ we must die to ourselves…in other words we have to quit worrying about “what’s in it for me?”  If you love God and commit your way to him…TRULY, you’re likely to face some incredibly tough times.  Just look in the Bible.  The most famous people in that book who were considered saints had to endure some of the worst situations ever known.  And the reason why is because God’s message to us all is that no matter how bad it gets…He is enough.  Period.

Lastly, the less I’m focused on myself, the more I’m available to BE the means to THE end for the people I love…by that I mean that I’m able to be Jesus to other people.

I saw rolling hills, alpine mountain towns, dry desert communities of people rusting their lives away and ghost towns sitting on the banks of the best laid plans of mice and men gone awry.  I went on a hike and I didn’t see a single interstate highway all day long…back roads, dirt roads, no roads took me to the places I visited.  Here’s how I went about “Running Down a Dream.”

Barona Resort & Casino: Not a big gambling fan, but the Barona reservation is BEAUTIFUL

Valley between Barona and Ramona, Ca. (Note to self: this place is pretty sweet...go back sometime)

Cuyamaca Lake: Hmmmmm...today is Sunday. Oh well

This is a hike that I did a while back and I loved it.  Good thing orangutans aren’t native to this area…I’d have been shot for sure.

Cuyamaca Rancho State Park = Amazing

HWY 78 East from Julian toward Anza-Borrego Desert

It was at this point that I realized that, despite how much I love the mountains and the trees…something inside of me just loves the rugged desert more.

HWY 78 East toward Ocotillo Wells

HWY 78 East toward Ocotillo Wells

Anza-Borrego Desert Rats live here

I saw a man in a nothing but shorts bathing from a five-gallon bucket outside his 5th Wheel trailer.  You’d think it’s a camp ground, but people build permanent porches and other structures off their trailers.

The Hills Have Eyes

The Salton Sea

West Shores, Salton City

The Salton Sea

Casualty of war

I’m a map fiend.  When Amy and I drove from Houston to Santa Barbara with everything we own in the back of a U-Haul, I noticed in my atlas that there was this huge lake at the south end of the state.  It said it was called Salton Sea.  I was fascinated by this thing and I wondered what on God’s green earth this Salton Sea could be.

Come to find out, Salton Sea has some pretty crazy history.  In the 1950′s, everyone was convinced that this area would become a massively profitable tourism area with lush vegetation, wildlife and great fishing.  They even thought Salton Sea would be a retreat for all of the major Hollywood celebs.  Well, they didn’t take into account that:

A.  Salton Sea is well over 200 ft below sea level, making the land high in selenium and salt.

B.  The water is riddled with high salinity levels.

C. The water is too stagnate to naturally lower it’s bacteria and salt content.

Here are some other highlights about Salton Sea’s history:

1935: Salton Sea’s level measured at –248 feet below sea level.

1941-45: Commercial fishermen use Salton Sea to supply mullet to coastal fish markets after German submarines make ocean fishing hazardous.

1944-45: B-29s from the U.S. Army’s 393rd Heavy Bombardment Squadron, commanded by Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets, make regular but highly secret practice flights from Wendover Air Base in Utah and drop dummies of a new bomb into the Salton Sea. On Aug. 6, 1945, Tibbets and his crew in the Enola Gay drop the first Atomic Bomb over Hiroshima, Japan.

1956: Salton Sea’s level measured at –234.5 feet below sea level.

1958: M. Penn Phillips Co., a subsidiary of Holly Corp., maps out a community on the West Shore of Salton Sea, calling it Salton City.

1960: North Shore Beach and Yacht Club Estates opened on North side of Sea.

1961: The California Department of Fish and Game predicts the Salton Sea will eventually die because of increasing salinity levels by 1980 or 1990.

1979: Salton Sea’s surface elevation recorded at –228 feet below sea level.

1992: 150,000 eared grebes die on Salton Sea, capturing national attention.

1994: Die-off of eared grebes claims 20,000 birds.

This is what it looked like

My day was exactly what it needed to be.

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