You were made to rise and soar!

In 1990 I perhaps foolishly offered to accompany my brother-in-law in attempting the Coast to Coast Walk, a 192-mile (if you follow the directions correctly!) long-distance footpath in Northern England which traverses the country. It passes through three contrasting national parks: the Lake District National Park, the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and the North York Moors National Park.  In achieving the walk, we passed through some breath-taking scenery, but it was hard going at times!  The walk was devised by Alfred Wainwright, creator of many walking guide books, particularly around his beloved Lake District.

Wainwright was a fascinating and complex character who, when walking, preferred his own company and would often do his best to avoid contact with other walkers.  I have recently read an interesting biography of Wainwright by Hunter Davies.  It is clear that Wainwright was a something of a philosopher.  I was particularly taken by one quote from his writings:

Anticipation is often more pleasurable than realisation; recollection is the sweetest of all and most enduring.  The mentality which urges you never to anticipate, never to count your chickens before they are hatched, is wrong all to blazes.  Let your anticipation run riot, plan and dream of things far above your grasp, reach after them in your imagination even when reality is receding, think about them always.  Plan new achievements, and set about achieving them.  Failure and disappointment simply don’t matter; go ahead with your dreaming, let your enthusiasm run away with you.  You were made to rise and soar, and come down to earth with a bump, and rise and soar again.  If you accomplish nothing else, you’ll have kept the rot and rust away.  Let me warn you: it’s the practical people who stay rooted on the earth, who make the money.  But it’s the dreamers who touch the stars.  Which is the success you plan?  Are you to ‘play safe’ for the rest of your life, or are you to adventure?  You must make a choice, and make it early; and having made it, you must abide by it.

What a challenge!  Although Wainwright’s mother was a lady with a strong Christian faith, there is no indication that her son followed in her footsteps.  Yet there are significant elements of Wainwright’s words which could be very well applied to the life of following Jesus.  When Jesus calls us to follow him, he never intends us to ‘play safe’; to do so it to miss out on his purposes for us.  After all, even our biggest dreams are far less than what God can accomplish through us (‘God is able to do far more than we could ever ask for or imagine.  He does everything by his power that is working in us’ Ephesians 3.20).

You were made to rise and soar!