5 Reasons to Spend Your Vacation in a Desert
Next week, seven of my friends and I will be canoeing and backpacking through a place few Americans know exists. Of America’s 58 national parks, Big Bend National Park ranks in the bottom ten for...
View ArticleNot Back By Popular Demand
Be wise. When our identity is not rooted in Christ, it can lead to dangerous and lonely places where we seek approval from the wrong things. — Eugene Cho (@EugeneCho) February 24, 2015 Last week, my...
View ArticleWinter Storm Thor and My Fear of Flying
I’m writing this post on the day of Winter Storm Thor’s wintery mix. The roads are slushy; maybe half of the stores & restaurants in my area are open. The library where I wanted to write this was...
View Article60 Indelible Seconds on the CLT Tarmac
Four years ago this week, my wife dropped me off at the Lynchburg airport well before my flight. I was headed to a new career adventure: teaching for two days at what is considered the auction...
View ArticleJon Acuff and the Upper Tye River
Last night, I went to a local bookstore to meet Jon Acuff, my favorite blogger. In addition to the meet and greet, he gave a 20-minute presentation on changing life and career trajectories. Somewhere...
View ArticleLiving Between the Lines of My Bucket List
I don’t remember people talking about bucket lists when I was a kid or even as a college student. I’m hearing bucket list all the time now. I credit the Internet for a lot of that—for exposing us to...
View Article8 Reasons to Travel Without Your Spouse
When I travel for business, I almost always travel alone. The airports are full of solo flyers, and nobody questions why nobody accompanies me. When I go on vacation by myself, though, people seem...
View ArticleA Long Night Alone on a Mountain
In 2012, Backpacker’s cover story featured the top 10 American camp sites. I kept that copy on my desk for more than a year, regularly staring at the cover photo. In it, an orange tent perched on the...
View ArticleSweaty Hands at the Controls
I love being in the sky. I’ve got an adventure résumé filled with aerial adrenaline rushes, including jumping out of planes. So, it’s a bit ironic that I get nervous on airplanes during turbulence....
View ArticleMy Journey to Almost Go on a Mission Trip
I was supposed to be arriving home from Nepal tonight. I was supposed to be melting under my walk-in, rain-head shower for half an hour after a couple weeks in cold, concrete buildings in Pokhara....
View ArticleThe Best Valentine Gift I’ve Ever Received
My wife has given me some great gifts over the years. She has seriously upgraded my wardrobe. She has provided me with adventures like hot air ballooning and riding in the back of a plane during...
View ArticleWhy God’s Sovereignty Needed a Jet Boat
My church’s video team asked me to assist them with a short film that will show during our Easter weekend services. I won’t give away the plot, but the central scene involves a whitewater rafting...
View Article3 Reasons I’m Writing about a Vacation I Haven’t Taken
I know how travel writing is supposed to work. Someone with wanderlust or an assignment goes to a place foreign to them (domestic or international), processes what they saw, and then transcribes their...
View Article316: Only A Week of Daydreaming Remains
I haven’t taken a week off work in just over a year. Since January, I’ve been planning an epic adventure in the Canadian Rockies and pining to leave. I’ve struggled to keep the excitement and...
View Article317: An Ohio Church Plant and an Animal Migration Bridge in Alberta
Recently, a friend of mine left my church’s staff to be part of a start-up church in Dayton, Ohio—a Bible Belt city where 86% of people surveyed said church wasn’t relative to their lives. John and his...
View Article4 Reasons I Shouldn’t Pursue My Dream Job
I learned today that Columbia is interviewing for two dream job positions. They want people to travel the world doing bucket-list activities for nine months, while testing various Columbia apparel and...
View ArticleAn Adrenaline Rush in Someone Else’s Living Room
Part of what makes an adrenaline rush so euphoric is the sense of accomplishment afterward. The physical sensations definitely contribute. But one of the biggest ingredients of that concoction—at least...
View Article330: Conrad Glacier: My Destiny
I had planned to hike Northern Italy’s Dolomites this past August. More specifically, I prepared to use the Alta Via 2 via ferrata course to trek from alpine refugio to refugio. Instead, I ventured to...
View Article331: A Year From Today
A year from today, I will turn 40. It will be a Sunday morning. So, I’ll start the day, doing something I love: praying then greeting guests with my buddies in our church’s parking lots. But right...
View Article338: I Met a Deceitful Beauty in Paradise
My wife and I recently spent three days on Middle Caicos, a remote island with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Caribbean Sea on the other. Few people live on this dot on the map. To get there,...
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