One thing I've learned from this trip is to be regularly open to the unusual. Doing this makes the usual much more exciting.






God, I will knock and trust you to do the opening.

The city of Cusco was our first stop to get acclimated to the altitude and experience the culture before we took off on our trek. Here are a few glances.

I just got back from one of the greatest adventures of my life so far.
You know that list of things you want to accomplish at some point in your life that you keep wishing you could get around to?
Well, Adam and I were lucky enough to be able to check this trip off this list just months after writing it down.
We went to Peru to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.
There is much to tell, however, first I must introduce you to the Peruvians.

The beauty of blur.
Taken by Kyle DeLoach.

The destination was Nye, Montana.
The reason was to celebrate friendship.

"I don't know, man...let's do something manly and adventurous," was the only criteria given to us for the bachelor party. So off we went to backpack the Beartooth Mountains.

Was it manly?
Was it adventurous?

We carried 55 lbs. on our backs, set up camp by a frozen lake, smelled ripe, cursed steep inclines, reveled at the scenery at the end of those inclines, rolled boulders off cliffs just to hear the crackle of tree limbs, plodded through snow, stood within 20 feet of a moose, army-crawled through more snow, found a mountain lion skull, had a steady diet of Ramen and jerky, laughed into the night by the fire, dove into a glacier melt pond, lost the trail, found the trail, and killed a bear and made coats out of his hide.
(And only one of these activities cannot be proven as factual.)

However, infinitely more important than the right of passage into rustic manliness was the time spent realizing that our growing into men together has been a gift of adventure that none of us could ever have dreamed of.
I am blessed to have failed and succeeded with these guys by my side.

By the way, if you've never yelled from a mountaintop, you have not yet experience the full feeling of furious freedom.
"I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world."--Walt Whitman

Hope you enjoyed yourself, Kyle. I'll never forget it.

The most essential equation for all of humanity:

Christ + Nothing = Joy

My friend, Justin, shared this truth with me and I appreciate it greatly.
Now I just have to work on managing the equation.

There are two things that will always remind a boy that there is an ever-increasing pace to life:
Go-carts and marriage.
I was given the opportunity to experience both of those reminders this past weekend.

Reminder #1: After the rehearsal dinner, all of the gentlemen went out to compete in a gentleman's game. The game was a few simple laps around a track. However, our instruments of speed required signing our lives away, wearing neck braces, and keeping "your visor down on that helmet, son." Put twelve grown men on 40 mph go-carts and the only lap that will be run at a "safe pace" will be the first. From then on "get out of the way or I'll put you in the wall" will be the look in every racers eye. Just a tip: if your racer name is "Ace," you can't lose. I'm not saying that was my name...but I'm just sayin.

Reminder #2: The marriage of Rob and Erin Hardy. It was a worship service more than a wedding. Rob is a great friend of mine from high school and it meant so much to see him continue his worship of God through his union with Erin. Also, I will be sharing communion with my wife on our knees before God on my wedding day. Rob, thanks for the beautiful reminder of how relationships are meant to be communion with God at work.


This lyric was in one of the songs we sang at the wedding:
"When strivings cease."
I may look back on the explanation of my feelings toward this quote and consider them too raw or vulnerable, but I will not let that keep me from writing from my true state of mind.
I have not strived toward God this week. My efforts have ceased due to selfishness, complacency, and ignoring of conviction. I must begin fresh with this new day. God, help a helpless person.
"In Christ alone" am I forgiven and gripped by God's grace.