Post by Dave on May 17, 2013 11:55:34 GMT -5
I just listened to Terral L. Croft talk about heading to his “safe haven” in the Ozarks.
I completely understand the mentality of trying to escape pending disasters and social collapse. I left Northern Indiana in 2000 to build mu own hide away in the Colorado mountains. I was so proud of my 35 acres, at 8278’, 14 miles from the nearest blacktop, and 3 miles from the nearest electricity. Solar panels, generators, and greenhouses were my focus for several years.
What a change in life style! Elk, Deer, Mountain Lion, and Eagles were common place, as well as, the bragging rights with co-workers about being able to make it all the way home through the snow. I would brag to friends and family that ever nail came from my hand, as if that was a measure of personal success.
I built the deck on top of the roof and sat there during the day in awe of God’s creation. At night the Milky Way and 10 billion stars illuminated the sky overhead. I felt close to my God there. Alone in the woods, I felt safe. The trees wanted nothing from me and in the stillness my prayers felt more sincere somehow. Pondering Confusion and the Fluid Dynamics of Whole Earth Decompression Theory was born there.
However, over time, my cherished seclusion changed into isolation and the 50 mile drive for employment became tiresome. The idea of escaping the wrath of God seemed selfish and so very foolish. As my faith grew, the words of Psalm 23 weighed on my heart. If that jack under my truck gave way and my legs became a tasty treat for the coyotes just what would be my legacy or my epitaph? - “He lived alone.”
I tried to fill that emptiness within my heart, but soon learned that anyone independent enough to be attracted to my life style was also independent enough that they didn’t need me. As a fluke, I did an online foreign bride search. I spoke to a very young girl from Accra Ghana for a while and asked her point blank, ‘Why would she even consider leaving her culture for an aged white guy in the middle of America.’ She said bluntly, ‘She would like to live older than 50.’
As a spoiled American, I was overwhelmed by her answer. In fact, I am still overwhelmed. Christmas 2008 my wife and her two small daughters, then age 4 and 2, joined me from the Philippines. My life today is all about my girls. We have since moved to town for necessity like: preschools and the local park. I have changed employment to a traveling agency and over the past 2 years my family has seen 18 states and we have lived in three. The pride of construction does not compare with a father’s pride of listening to his girls read aloud or receiving endless homemade crafts with ‘I love you daddy’ inscribed in crayon.
I feel so blessed by the Lord and trying to raise little girls in a Christian home has impacted my personal faith in ways I cannot describe. Psalms 23 has taken on new meaning for me. Just what part of that Psalms speaks to hiding away in a safe zone somewhere? Today, I go wherever the Lord leads me and my family. New Churches to attend, new Sunday Schools to explore, different opinions to consider have all added to our experience and to the value of my own personal witness.
My safe haven is in the Lord. Daniel survived the lion’s den and I no longer feel a calling to escape life, but to live it fully in his service. As I watched the Planet-7X presentation, one point that it made over and over spoke to my heart:
Mark 8:34 And he called unto him the multitude with his disciples, and said unto them, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whosoever would save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's shall save it. 36 For what doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?
Also restated in Luke 9:23-25 and Matthew 16:24-26
I completely understand the mentality of trying to escape pending disasters and social collapse. I left Northern Indiana in 2000 to build mu own hide away in the Colorado mountains. I was so proud of my 35 acres, at 8278’, 14 miles from the nearest blacktop, and 3 miles from the nearest electricity. Solar panels, generators, and greenhouses were my focus for several years.
What a change in life style! Elk, Deer, Mountain Lion, and Eagles were common place, as well as, the bragging rights with co-workers about being able to make it all the way home through the snow. I would brag to friends and family that ever nail came from my hand, as if that was a measure of personal success.
I built the deck on top of the roof and sat there during the day in awe of God’s creation. At night the Milky Way and 10 billion stars illuminated the sky overhead. I felt close to my God there. Alone in the woods, I felt safe. The trees wanted nothing from me and in the stillness my prayers felt more sincere somehow. Pondering Confusion and the Fluid Dynamics of Whole Earth Decompression Theory was born there.
However, over time, my cherished seclusion changed into isolation and the 50 mile drive for employment became tiresome. The idea of escaping the wrath of God seemed selfish and so very foolish. As my faith grew, the words of Psalm 23 weighed on my heart. If that jack under my truck gave way and my legs became a tasty treat for the coyotes just what would be my legacy or my epitaph? - “He lived alone.”
I tried to fill that emptiness within my heart, but soon learned that anyone independent enough to be attracted to my life style was also independent enough that they didn’t need me. As a fluke, I did an online foreign bride search. I spoke to a very young girl from Accra Ghana for a while and asked her point blank, ‘Why would she even consider leaving her culture for an aged white guy in the middle of America.’ She said bluntly, ‘She would like to live older than 50.’
As a spoiled American, I was overwhelmed by her answer. In fact, I am still overwhelmed. Christmas 2008 my wife and her two small daughters, then age 4 and 2, joined me from the Philippines. My life today is all about my girls. We have since moved to town for necessity like: preschools and the local park. I have changed employment to a traveling agency and over the past 2 years my family has seen 18 states and we have lived in three. The pride of construction does not compare with a father’s pride of listening to his girls read aloud or receiving endless homemade crafts with ‘I love you daddy’ inscribed in crayon.
I feel so blessed by the Lord and trying to raise little girls in a Christian home has impacted my personal faith in ways I cannot describe. Psalms 23 has taken on new meaning for me. Just what part of that Psalms speaks to hiding away in a safe zone somewhere? Today, I go wherever the Lord leads me and my family. New Churches to attend, new Sunday Schools to explore, different opinions to consider have all added to our experience and to the value of my own personal witness.
My safe haven is in the Lord. Daniel survived the lion’s den and I no longer feel a calling to escape life, but to live it fully in his service. As I watched the Planet-7X presentation, one point that it made over and over spoke to my heart:
Mark 8:34 And he called unto him the multitude with his disciples, and said unto them, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whosoever would save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's shall save it. 36 For what doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?
Also restated in Luke 9:23-25 and Matthew 16:24-26