Nothing could be more Hallmark holiday than being in Colonial Williamsburg skating on the ice. AND in true made-for-tv fashion if you look closely in the picture you’ll see the ice is like shiny glass. That’s because the outdoor temperatures were about 70 degrees Fahrenheit the day my wife and I enjoyed the festivities. If you fall on the ice here you’re going to get very wet. Not quite what I had in mind when I decided to use the hashtag #WarmthInTheCold for this issue of Shout! OUTDOOR LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE.
My memories of warmth in the cold from outdoor winters past include a bon fire while sledding, drinking hot chocolate and coffee while ice skating on a thoroughly frozen solid pond and soaking my numb immobile hands in warm water and feeling them hurt terribly as they thawed after an adventurous hike in the woods. Get outside in the winter and you’ll find that it is perhaps one of the best seasons to, as Michael Guillen says, Let Creation Speak!
Getting outdoors in blowing snow, slick conditions, and below freezing temps is a physical stimulation for one’s spirit like no other. You have to ‘want’ it, prepare for it, and then go for it. You know it’s a cold world out there, but it doesn’t stop you. In fact if anything, when you’re really passionate about getting outdoors – the colder and more challenging the environment the more it fires the desire within your spirit. Bring it on! That’s #WarmthInTheCold that nothing and no one can tame.
I remember sledding down a snowy slope every winter at La Campagne in Indiana, getting airborne and landing in fresh snow that sprayed my face with a stinging glaze. I hated it – but I loved it! The burning blast of pure frozen fun that melts on the face not fast enough certainly isn’t the trademarked “feathery champagne powder” of Steamboat, Colorado’s ski slopes that Nolan Schneider describes in his Pursuit Collective article, Impact, in this issue. However, it’s perfect nonetheless for smacking you in the face with searing resilience. If you’ve experienced the cold outdoors like this you know what I’m describing. Getting outdoors in the cold fuels a kind of energy that warms your outlook on life with hot resiliency.
GOD-CENTERED OUTDOOR WARMTH IN THE COLD
As good as all that is, I encourage you to radiate an even greater warmth in this spiritually cold world. Sin causes the heart of man to be more brutal than the most frigid of winter conditions. We know that hate numbs the soul of the hater and is bitterly painful for the hated. Like drifting snow; fear, confusion, indifference, pride and hopelessness all pile up making it hard for anyone to find their way. Worse yet it can avalanche and bring total spiritual death.
God in you is better than all of the refreshing peace and energizing thrills that winter can offer. When your outdoor activities make and keep God central then they are more robust. You invite and experience a strength and energy that goes beyond the moment, transcends the sport and surpasses the challenge. Only God can give deeper presence to awe and wonder. Only God can bring about outcomes that aren’t just fun, thrilling or new but are more importantly needed. Beyond the summit, after a well executed plan, at the end of the gratifying day, regardless of whether the sun kissed it or you endured dismal conditions, past everything God’s glory remains.
It’s that glory we must more passionately pursue and then radiate. We can be the church in the snow. Nothing of ourself – all for God. Not just for a moment but ongoing. It’s a very different kind of #WarmthInTheCold. A warmth people never knew they could feel. It can’t be tamed and can’t be taken away.
Adventure fully in Christ,
-Brad Bloom, Publisher
