ramblin’ man

There’s a song by Lemon Jelly called “Ramblin’ Man.” Lemon Jelly is a group that Joel Marshall, my youth pastor in High School, introduced me to. For those of you who know Joel you probably already know what type of group this is. If you’re reading this and you were in a van that I was driving this summer while at Brookwoods you’ve experienced this group as well (all the ducks are swimming). For those of you who don’t know, Lemon Jelly is a chill trance group. This isn’t tecno music that you would find bumpin’ in a club, it’s something that would be better suited as the backdrop to a coffee shop that I would like to work in. I know that Sam likes them, and I know that at least Paul and Haddie enjoyed them as well this summer. Other than those three, though, there aren’t many folks in my life who got as much of a kick out of them as I do.

I bring Lemon Jelly up because of the song I mentioned at the start of this post: “Ramblin’ Man.” The song starts with one man asking a question:

“John you’ve been on the go ever since you were born, but I imagine few people in the world today have traveled as much as you have. Now why?”

With the reply:

“Well, I don’t know. I suppose some of us are cave-dwellers, some of us live in houses, some of us like to be loose-footed. I’m a rambin’ man.” (Here you can tell he says this with a smile)

This is where the song “kicks” in, if it can be called that. It slowly builds up around the strings, the bass following the same pattern, adding flute and chimes, when all this drops out and John repeats:

“I’m a ramblin’ man.”

The song then switches gears and John starts listing places. These are places, I like to think, that he has rambled through. They come faster and faster until one is layered on top of another and you can’t quite tell what is being said, only to climax with:

“I’m a ramblin’ man.”

Another instrumental section follows, the song finally ending on:

“I’m a ramblin’ man, and I’m gonna’ keep on ramblin’. Oh yes, I have to.”

What does it mean to ramble? And, more importantly, should on seek to be a ramblin’ man? According to dictionary.com:

Ramble

-verb (used without object)

1. To wander around in a leisurely, aimless manner.

2. To take a course with many turns or winding, as a stream or path.

3. To grow in a random, unsystematic fashion.

4. To talk or write in a discursive, aimless way (usually followed by on)

-verb (used with object)

5. To walk aimlessly or idly over or through.

6. A walk without a definite route, taken merely for pleasure.

According to the dictionary definition all you need to be a ramblin’ man is to lack direction or purpose. Our culture typically looks down on those of us who lack direction or purpose. In fact we often use the term “rambling on” in a derisive way: “the pastor rambled on about (enter soapbox issue here) for fourty-five minutes!” You could take the dictionary and practical definitions and say that one should not seek to be a ramblin’ man. One should seek purpose, direction, passion, and security.

The issue I have with that train of thought is that not only did I miss it at the station, I wasn’t even trying to hop on: I was down the street having coffee while it whizzed by. My life, while I couldn’t define as purposeless and directionless, is more so that than it has ever been. For the first twenty-four years I’ve been on this earth I’ve had a plan. Graduate high school, graduate college, get a job, try to get into grad school, etc. But all of that left me asking one gigantic question:

Why?

Why did I do all of those things? And the short answer is I did all those things because I was supposed to. And so know I am “rebelling” against the things I’m supposed to do and taking every opportunity I can to hop in a car with whoever will take, or go with, me. I’m driving from Alton, New Hampshire to Kansas City, Missouri with Hank and Chris. I’m riding around New Hampshire with Sarah. I’m driving from New York City to Charleston, South Carolina with Zack to go surfing and catch up with Carly. I’m telling my mom, somewhat irresponsibly I’ll admit, that I need to drive to Nashville the morning I need to do it. Most of these travels seem somewhat aimless and may classify me as a ramblin’ man. But all of the destinations had one thing in common: people I love were where I was going. And while I may, at times, mourn the fact that I’m “a jobless, woefully single, twenty-four year old dude living at his parents house” I’m not wondering aimlessly around the country or my life. The reason why I am ramblin’ about the country is because:

“Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

While I may be “woefully-single,” I can still love. And I may be jobless, but I can still share what God is teaching me. I can still connect to people. And I feel the most joy when I am connecting with people, loving and being loved by them. So that’s probably why I’ll get a job. So that I can keep connecting with and loving people.

Am I a ramblin’ man? I don’t know about that. Probably just a ramblin’ boy. I am only twenty-four, after all.

Luke

luketlancaster@gmail.com

thin places

This is a post I've been thinking about since the Allagash. While paddling up Eagle Lake at about 6:00 on Wednesday morning something struck me. It was early and the lake was glass, there were no sounds to disturb the peace that God had placed on the waterway this morning. What I noticed was the clouds. I looked up and it seemed that they were closer to the earth. I felt that if my arms were just a little bit longer, I could have reached right out of the canoe and grabbed one. Unfortunately words can only do so much to describe not only the setting, but the feeling it caused. I don't mean that there was fog: there was plenty of that, but these clouds were different. These were the clouds you see floating lazily by on a summer day in the midwest, miles above you. These are the clouds you make animals out while laying in the grass. These are the clouds that make you feel small when you fly by them in an airplane. These were real clouds, and they were mere feet above our canoe.

A "thin place" is one of those locations where the dividing line between holy and the ordinary is, well, thin. Those places you get to and a shiver runs down your spine because you know that just on the other side of the paper-thin veil God rests. The Allagash is one of those places for me. If I had my druthers I would probably be on the Allagash right now, with nine of my favorite people. In fact I'm somewhat convinced that when I die and go to Heaven I'll be paddling my way there in an Old Town Tripper with my Shaw & Tenney paddle. I don't want to give the impression that the reason that the Allagash felt like heaven was because the clouds were close to earth, because there's much more to it than that. Sleeping on the ground, reading Psalms out loud, sharing who I am without fear and that same trust being reciprocated...all these things are heavenly. All of these lead me to the feeling of being close to the other side.

I think one of the reasons that we don't experience thin places is because we have built our lives in our own image. How often are we forced out of the fortresses of our mind to something totally new and novel? How often do we take a step out the door into something we've never experienced before? For me the answer is, simply, not enough. It's a wonder that it's taken me this long to "figure out" why I struggle with life sometimes. I've kept the same old habits for a long time. And not even bad ones, just habitual behavior that leads me on to the next habitual behavior. I've been blessed with singleness at twenty-four, and all I can think about is how I want my life to be a job, wife, and kids. Those are great things and things I eventually want. But as for now I want to take what God has given me and run with it. I want to be dependent on Him to lead me through the valley, and rejoice with me on the mountaintop. I want him to be in the back of the canoe, guiding me through lakes and rivers. Feeling the pain of headwinds the joy of rapids. I don't know how I'll manage to become that, and I'm sure that just as soon as I take a step  in the right direction it'll get hard. But I'm tired of yearning for something different. I want to be thankful for what I have.

So for the next couple of months I hope to find more thin places. But I also hope to find Him in the thick ones. Get out your front door and go someplace. Hike up a mountain, paddle across a river, seek God and you'll find Him. And when you find one of these thin places, rejoice. Take it all in, and go on home. Because we can't hold on to time any more than we can decide what the weather is going to be. But we can remember, and we can share.

Luke
Luketlancaster@gmail.com

reminders

The response to the last post was about what I expected it to be. Cody came up to me on the front lawn and told me that I needed to change my blog post. A couple of people posted reminders on Facebook saying such things like "God is good" and "you'll get better." One friend at camp even wrote a note telling me that God still can use me and that perhaps this is His way of knocking down my pride. I first want to say thanks to everyone who said something, either directly to me or straight to God.

But I also wanted to add something to my last post. I'm aware of what we all say when something like this happens. "All things work together for the good of those who love God and live according to His purpose." "He has a plan," "things are bound to improve," etc. And while, again, I'm thankful for the reminder, I still needed the time to process what happened to me. My part in this was to work through it and the part of everyone else in my life seemed to be to continually remind me of the Truth. I'm incredibly blessed to have people in my life who are willing to put up with my bad attitude and so glad to hear from everyone. 

As I said above, my part in this was to work through it. My thought was that I was shortchanging the healing process by saying to myself that everything would be OK. I want to be honest to you and to myself. And the honest truth was what I was feeling a couple of days ago. But that snapshot is just that, a picture of me at a certain point in time. To know the real me you're gonna have to be around me and see that no matter what I put up on this blog I'm growing, that almost as soon as I put something up on this blog I've grown from it. I'm already a little better and less emotional about being hiked out, and I think part of that is the discipline of writing and the rest is time.

The other thing I want to say I've already touched on a little and it has to to with honesty. I feel that what I write in this blog has to be honest or I'm wasting everyone's time. I could just put the fluffy, happy things up and you and I would probably feel just that way about it. But when I first starting writing in this thing I made a conscious decision to write the truth no matter what. So that's what I've been trying to do, no matter how uncomfortable that may be. So in one hand I'm sorry for being a bummer sometimes, but on the other hand I'm not sorry for that. Our feelings are from God and if we don't use them they'll become lazy and atrophied. If I can make someone feel something from what I'm writing I'll be perfectly happy, and if that feeling is sadness come and talk and we'll work through it together.

Thanks for reading, and in the next couple of weeks I should have a guest post coming up.

Luke

luketlancaster@gmail.com

failure

This past week I was supposed to be hiking in the White Mountains with my campers. All the preparations were made, the group of 24 was split into three, and we set off. But during staff week I had tweaked my right knee just a little, and about an hour into the trip it started bothering me. By halfway through the first day I was wearing two braces and leaning heavily on the trekking poles that George Bowling let me borrow. We got in camp a little late and found that our water source was a stagnant pond. Beth (trip staff) and I decided that her, Paul, and Scott would go back down the trail to get clean water for the group, and they headed off. While they were doing that I was sitting on the ground with my leg resting on a log. A wet bandanna was wrapped around my knee as the only way to "ice" it. After Beth got back we talked about my options and figured that I would at least need to continue on the next day to get to the best possible evac site.

In the middle of the next day Beth made the call to camp and the evac was set up. Christian would come in, hand the keys to a jeep off to me, and I'd hike myself out. We camped that night about two and a half miles away from our meet up and made really good time getting there the next day. The hand-off went off without a hitch, and Christian took my place with my campers. And I walked two miles out of the White Mountains to a parking lot and civilization.

What have I learned from this? Well, I think it's too early to decide on that to be honest. But I can tell you what I was/am feeling because of it.

• I feel like a failure. Like I failed my campers, I failed camp itself, and mostly that I failed Beth. I feel like I should have known that my knee was going to give out. That I should have just said that I couldn't go. I feel like I was too prideful and that if I wasn't so much I would have not gone and put the campers and Beth in the position I did. 
• This is the first time in my life that I've not been able to do something because of my body. I wanted to finish that trip. I wanted to grit my teeth and bear down and keep going. But I couldn't. I can barely make it around camp, much less up and down mountains.
• I'm incredibly grateful for my camp family. My co-counselers have been great. They have lifted me up, they've helped me get out of the funk I was in, and they've made sure that I am making it. I missed out on the hike experence, but I'm not missing out on the rest of camp thanks to them.

I'll be going into the hospital on Thursday to get it checked out, and we'll see what happens. I pray it's nothing too bad, but I also hope that it is. I don't think I could bear it if it wasn't anything big and I was just being a pansy.

Thanks for your prayers, and contrary to the tone of this post I'm really doing well. It's hard, but it's good. Can't wait to see you when I see you.

Luke
luketlancaster@gmail.com