Mountain Climbing is for Dummies

You’ll have to forgive my nearly month-long silence. I would like to give you all a really good excuse, like I broke 9 out of 10 fingers in a freak skiing accident, or I’ve been buried in top-secret peace talks between North and South Korea, but that wouldn’t be the truth.

Or even really believable.

I have been really busy, and that’s the truth. And hey, I’m here, you’re here-let’s get this blog started! (And I promise to try to be more consistent if you promise to bear with me).

Tuesdays are my fast days. It’s my day, set apart for the Lord, when I pray over some of the things in my life that I feel need an extra push-specifically, the things I’m sure with never happen if I don’t pray over them. It’s amazingly rewarding, and really, really hard. One of the things that’s I’ve noticed over the past 9 months that I’ve been doing this is that God really talks to me on those Tuesdays. So it should come as no surprise that God chose yesterday to have a nice, friendly chat with me. I even had a cup of coffee.

Yesterday, after our weekly staff meeting/worship session (perks of being a missionary, peeps) I went outside on the balcony to get some air. I had been praying, and while it hadn’t been super intense, I just felt like I needed to breathe.

Spread out before, in this breathtaking way, was the sun setting behind Popo(catptl; really big volcano, for the uninitiated). It was amazing; the colors, the scope, the cloud formations-indescribable. I was awed by the view, which was so rich that I’m not even trying to do it justice with my words, because I know I couldn’t.

Seeing the volcano made me think about my recent trek up the Malinche, a local mountain that insane people like to climb for fun. If you’re guessing from my adjective choice I’m not a mountain climber, you are correct. And yet, somehow, I keep ending up climbing mountains in real life. Prophetic somehow? I don’t doubt it, and I’m about to tell you why.

My most recent climb up the Malinche was horrible. It was raining, it was wet, my lungs were burning, my legs were aching, the stupid mountain went up FOREVER-the list goes on and on. I absolutely hated every single second of it, and I’m not exaggerating. I wanted to turn around and go back to the nice, warm building about 10 minutes into the trek. I had no pride; I just wanted to stop, and the only reason I kept going was because they wouldn’t let me go back down by myself (something about getting lost, possible death in the woods, blah blah blah. Did not care.) Everyone passed me, and by the time I finally got to the halfway point-we couldn’t go any higher; the weather was that bad-I was 3/4ths dead and was reduced to a jelly-legged heap on a rock. I almost cried.

How is this prophetic, you may ask?

I feel like this whole climbing mountains nonsense is a lot like my relationship with God, right down to the jelly-legs. I’m on this journey up the mountain with God. Going uphill already sucks, but going up a mountain? It’s hard (please note the understatement here)! Every step of the way, I want to give up, or go back down-go backwards, or just stay where I am because I like it there-it’s dry and my legs hurt. And God is like David Acosta-who I may never forgive-spent the majority of that day telling me “Keep going, Alisha!” “Just a little further.” “Have some M&Ms” (for the record, M&Ms are nourishing to the body and the soul). He didn’t give up on me, and he wouldn’t let me give up on me, either.

I’m not saying that it’s God’s only job to be our cheerleader (because it’s so totally not), but sometimes I think it’s important to remember that you’re going up a mountain. Some parts are steeper than others. Some have rocks. Sometimes you fall down the steep parts, land on the rocks, and have to get your bruised self up again (ask me how I know). But my point is, it’s a journey, an upward progress, that we will struggle with until we go to be with Him.

However, you’re not in it alone-you have a guide. If you let Him, the Lord will lead you on a journey specifically tailored to you, giving you tasks that you are uniquely suited and gifted for you. And while it’s an uphill battle, you have someone to fight for you, to help you climb the steep parts, and watch out for rocks. Someone to help you up when you fall.

So really, spiritual mountain climbing is a heck of a lot easier than real mountain climbing.

By the way, if anyone has any questions for me, or wants to know how they can specifically bless me or my girls, please contact me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/alisha.tomsen.

Confessions of a Mold Breaker

I don’t want to be normal.

That may seem like a strange declaration, and maybe it makes sense. No one wants to be normal. Normal is boring. Normal is commonplace. Normal is antithetical to being special, which is what we all really want.

            

At some point, for good or ill, I made the decision to embrace my own non-normalcy, and to enhance it. Maybe I knew I was never going to fit in, so I decided to stand out. Maybe I just wanted to be noticed in a different way from “Oh, it’s that girl who reads all the time.” I didn't question it along the way, but now, at 23, I've become a dread locked, pierced, gauged and tattooed woman, and although I'm sure I'm not nearly as cool as I think I am, I’m left with a slight question of “When did this happen?”

           

Did I make the right choices in my journey to stand out? Have I just turned myself into an oddity? Who knows. I don’t regret any of my choices-exterior and interior, I am who I want to be (mostly).  But the point is, in become this person who stands out, I find that sometimes I really stand out.

           

The way I look causes people to draw conclusions about me before they know who I am. Not everyone, but some people. I've been told I’m rebellious, I’m a sinner, I’m a bad person-a whole spectrum of things, just because of a couple of piercings and some dreads. They think I do or sell drugs one time a lady actually moved her kids away from me. I feel so conspicuous at times, just walking down the street, because of all of the people looking at me. It’s not enough that I’m white-I’m also really different.

           

I’m not saying this for sympathy; I’m saying it so that you will understand what I’m asking of you. The problem with standing out is that you can’t blend it. You’re highly visible. You’re in front, for the world to see. And as Christians, we should be that visible.

            

Ah, you say, stoking your chin. I’m visible. Everyone knows I’m a Christian.

            

Well, good for you. But what about the people you don’t know. Do they know? When’s the last time you witnessed to someone on the street? More than just your friends knowing your religious convictions, could a stranger pick you out of a lineup as a Christian?

            

Jesus said “They will know you are Christians by your love (Jn. 13:35).” This sounds like a statement, but it’s really a command. We’re called to go out there and share the love of Jesus and His good news, and how will the people recognize our holy origins? By our love. It’s a tall order, and not nearly as easy to spot as a dread locked white girl.

            

I don’t want to be normal. Not on the outside, and not on the inside. I’m finding, though, that it’s a lot easier to change how you look on the outside than how you look on the inside. My love is insufficient-at the end of the day, I’m tired and cranky and rundown and I just want to sleep. I don’t want to show love in any form; I want a pillow and a book.

For me, the biggest test of my love is one of my girls coming up to me and telling me about their day, wanting my attention. I show my love, and Jesus’ love, to them when I read to them, or when I spend time with them, even though I've worked all day and I’m tired. For my girls, I’m one of the first, and most constant, examples of Christ’s love that they’re going to see, and it’s my responsibility-my charge-to show that love in every way I know how. Although my love may be insufficient, His isn't; it never ends.

Don’t be normal. You don’t have to get a tattoo; you don’t have to dread your hair. Don’t use me as your role model. There’s only one thing you really have to do, only one person worthy of emulation: Jesus.

Does your love look like his?

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.