Alright, it’s time for a thought exercise. I want you to play along for a few minutes, if for no other reason than to humor me. If this weren’t in written form, I would ask you to close your eyes and visualize what I’m about to describe. But alas, we’ll give a little grace if you refuse to close your eyes for this one…

Ready?

Here goes:

Imagine you’re standing on an overlook, staring across a vast desert valley. In the distance, rugged mountains cradle the valley with strong and dry arms.

As you look at the valley floor, you see it covered with desert chaparral – dry, brittle brush that thirsts for heaven’s rain. Swaths of the desert floor are bare, showing the evidence of rivers that once flowed many ages ago.

Can you see it?

Can you smell it?

Can you feel the warm breeze press against your face?

When Things Don't Go As Planned

We recently returned from a “one last getaway before school starts” camping trip to the eastern Sierras. If you’ve never been there before, you’re seriously missing out. It’s the sharper side of the Sierras, where jagged mountains topping 14,000 feet plunge dramatically into deep and verdant valleys.

One of our favorite places in the eastern Sierras is the Yosemite high country. It’s visited by only 10% of the crowds that the more famous Yosemite Valley hosts, but it boasts a dramatic landscape of mountain meadows, glacial lakes, and tall peaks.

It's the Little Things That Matter Most

It’s been one of those mornings. Disrupted is really the only apt descriptor.

It started with waking early, as is my custom, to go to the gym for a light workout.

(I’m in the process of rehabbing from a ruptured Achilles tendon, so my “workout” consists of walking on the treadmill for 20 minutes while being flanked by silver-haired old ladies who like to sprint. I’m not making this up. I think they derive great pleasure from watching a “young” mid-forties man struggle to sustain 3mph on the treadmill. I’m pretty sure it’s the feature story in their afternoon knitting groups.)

But the workouts help set my mindset for the day. I’m doing something to grow, to improve, and to clear the cobwebs that the morning cup of coffee was unable to do.

This morning, however, I walked into the gym to find that the blustering morning winds had knocked out the power and they were sending everyone home.

Wonderful. Disruption #1.

The Legacy of a Champion

I have to admit when I heard the news, I was a bit shocked.

I was sitting in church. Our pastor had mentioned a fascinating interview he had heard with an Israeli political figure who was quoted as saying America’s biggest threat to Israel was its ignorance when it came to knowledge of the Bible. He went on to explain why, but the text message that came in completely distracted me…

“Kobe is dead.”

Faith, Life Abundant, The Journey, The Stuff That MattersNathan WestwickJanuary 26, 2020Kobe, Champion, Death, BibleComment

Death is Not Normal

A few months ago, I attended a funeral celebrating the life of my aunt who died way too soon. Cancer took her life, leaving my uncle devastated in its wake.

Earlier this week, I attended a funeral celebrating the life of a friend who died way too soon. Aggressive brain cancer took her life, leaving her husband and children feeling the depths of her absence.

25 years ago, I attended a funeral celebrating the life of my best friend who died way too soon. Congenital heart disease took his life overnight, leaving friends and family confused and disoriented.

You could fill in your own stories of experiencing loss, of dealing with the death of a loved one, of mourning someone who left the land of the living earlier than expected.

There is something inside each and every one of us that knows, deep inside, that this isn’t the way things ought to be.

When We Come Alive

The hills in southern California have sprung up in vibrant greens recently – wildflowers of orange, yellow, and purple carpet the green hills, making a tapestry of color and life that I haven’t seen around here in many years.

These colors were highlighted recently on a bike ride I took at sunrise, where the sun’s long shadows cast a contrast on the hills, making them stand out all the more glorious, all the more beautiful than they already were.

Fighting for What's Good, Life Abundant, RelationshipsNathan WestwickMarch 18, 2019Bloom, Blessings, Desert, Love, Offering HopeComment

The Waiting is the Hardest Part (or The Fear is in the Anticipation)

We recently had the opportunity to join some beloved family members at Six Flags for the day. Given that we have three boys who jump at any whiff of adventure, we trekked over to what used to be called Magic Mountain (now Six Flags California) for a day of fun.

One ride, in particular, caught my attention:

It’s the new version of Freefall – redone from the days of my youth to be four times taller, and a million times more thrilling.

Faith, Family, Life Abundant, Overcoming Fears, The JourneyNathan WestwickFebruary 25, 2019Anxiety, Overcoming Fears, Crazy Life, Adventure, Leap of FaithComment

Sometimes you have to feel small in order to realize your own importance

If you’re anything like me, you have your good days and your bad days. Days when you feel like things are going well, and others when no matter what you do, nothing seems to quite work out.

And if you’re like me, when all you’ve been doing is GO, GO, GO, emotions can run a bit fragile.

A Blessed Mess

Take a brief moment out of your day today and look around at the people in your midst, particularly if you’re in a public place.

As you glance around, make an effort to look into each person’s inner being – in a non-creepy way, of course, because people get arrested for being creepy, and we certainly don’t want that.

But take a look. What do you observe?

What I see is complex and conflicted human beings.

Why We Shouldn’t Take Shortcuts for Lent

With today marking not only Valentine’s Day, but also the start of Lent, it seemed like a good time to talk all things chocolate, love, and surrender. (OK, maybe not the cleanest of introductory sentences, but every blog must start somewhere, right?)

Now that the awkward intro is out of the way, let’s talk about Lent for a moment.

It’s a relatively new thing for me, as most evangelical churches don’t do a whole lot about the 40 days prior to Easter, so here’s a quick crash course in case your early experience with people practicing Lent was a bit like mine: Looking with strange glances at the girls in my class who were giving up sweets, like chocolate, carbs or some other silly thing, quite likely for weight loss, all under the guise of piety, or as we call it, Lent.

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