Leg 2 of the trip

For pictures and more information on what we've actually done, check my Facebook pictures.

Tyler and I have been on the road for 18 days now... Feels like it's been forever since I've seen my family in Bloomington and so much longer since I was still in school for the year! It's been a trip, that's for sure! And we have another week out here!

Anyways, I've still been in awe of how big our Lord is. Since we last talked, I hiked the rim to rim trail at Grand Canyon (21 miles in two days with over a mile of elevation change down and up again), we saw the Hoover Dam, the instant gratification of Las Vegas, the amazing diversity of Los Angeles, a couple of baseball games, and the beautiful Bay Area in "Nor Cal". It's been a long week to say the least.

A few words on the Grand Canyon...

It was amazing. It's so vast and incredible. To see a mile straight down and such incredible design around everything in the area is unspeakable. The climate changes so immensely in this small 21 miles. In our time there it was 80 degree high with a FOREST (yeah, we didn't know there were forests around the Grand Canyon either) on both rims while it's 105 (120 in the sunlight!!) in the bottom of the canyon. God is so freaking creative... I, nor anyone that I know, is smart or cleaver enough to create something that functions in this way. He is truly a God worth worshiping!

The hike was incredible as well. The views were what kept me going on our 14 mile hike out of the canyon. The difficulty of the hike out was way too hard. It was almost difficult to enjoy what I was doing because I was in so much pain. We finally made it out though and I was so happy that I gave complete strangers high fives.

Contrast

In the last week we've done a lot of things. It was so interesting to come from being in the wilderness, camping for two weeks to being in such populated areas. I have a little more of a perspective and curiosity about why things are the way they are. I've enjoyed seeing what is natural in nature. When I'm in nature, it's so quiet. I'm able to hear things that I don't in the city. I can feel things I don't feel when people are around. When I'm in the wilderness, the natural comes... well, natural. It's not a challenge to force myself against what needs to get done that day to read my Bible or to meditate on our Lord's vastness. I love it. I think that the pleasantness of people on the trail is due to this. There is no one saying who you should or should not be out there. It's just you, me, and nature. There's no need to be someone you're not or to impress anyone.

Coming to the cities of the west coast, I've also noticed that so many things are man-made in this world, too from dams to buildings to culture to racism. We make the way that we interact with each other. My interactions with people on the trails in the wilderness are much more pleasant as a whole than mine with people in the city. Why? Do we have so much going on in the city that we forget what is important? When we're in the wilderness among Creation, is it easier to see what's important?

If there's so much tranquility where there is nothing but God and Man while so much pain where there is Man... I don't know. Something that I've been losing sight of while living in Milwaukee is finding God in the City. It's totally different than in the wilderness... Jesus says that when we serve the least of these, we're serving Him. That means that when we see the least of these to society, we are experiencing God. They are something to respect just like we do the nature in a national park... In what ways can we see God in the city or everyday life? He's everywhere all the time. We just need to find Him sometimes...