Wending the Way 

Shattered Glass

Friday, October 28, 2011 

To Be a Child

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Lately I’ve been pondering what it means to truly be a child. It could be that I spent some of this summer in a new environment with wonderful teens from Denver and Miami. And it could be the beautiful friends I’ve been meeting along the way. {Can I just mention that when you are truly yourself, nothing but the raw you, you meet the most amazing people?} When you take more than the casual glance at someone to see beyond their shell, to see their story, you realize that every person can be a child no matter their age. 

The definition of a child is “a person between birth and full growth”. But are we ever really full grown? When I think of “full grown”, I actually think of an old tree that has fallen over in very old age after living a very rich life {and I am not referring to money}. We typically shed the thinking of being a child when one becomes an adult at the age of 18. But even then we still have the opportunity to be children. Age is only a number and it’s not a great measure of maturity. Some of us settle into our comfort zone so easily and settle for stopping where it hurts, stopping where the effort might take more that we willing to give, where growth will cease. 

Being a child means being a learner… to never stop discovering… to relish in the challenge… to get hurt but get back up, not only brushing off the dirt, but to then continue along the way applying what was learned… to be able to try something new and if it doesn’t work out {especially over and over and over again}, well stop doing it the same way… to be able to apply change… to make the choice to do something differently… to be able to learn within the difficult times and joyful times alike {and growing in realizing that they can be in the same}… to apologize when needed, and to not let guilt become permanent road blocks… to be loved, and to give love, refining that love along the way… Being a child is a choice. The choice to learn and grow in every day life. To engage our hearts with our hands and feet. 

Contrary to popular belief, learning is not all about books. True understanding takes place when we go outside of the book and apply it with our hearts through our hands and feet. Notice I did not mention our mouths, {and most certainly not the words we throw out onto our Facebooks that look nice, only to seconds later live the same we have been}. Mouths are a valuable part of our bodies, but maybe the least valuable in learning and in teaching. While tough lessons can be learned by what come out of our mouths, it’s the action that goes beyond words where the rich life takes place. While words can be helpful {and hurtful}, our hands and feet are an all-telling reflection of where our hearts are and where we are learning. 

Only when we are learners can we then teach to others and have something to give. Children are the best teachers. And isn’t it ironic how children have the most friends, the most lively of communities? The best learning is done along side of others, which requires humility, truth, and openness in community. 

What if the pages of our book could turn through our hands and feet along the way, through our willingness to grow, to be the children we were created to be?

For more blogs from Alicia visit her website at: http://wendingthewayhome.blogspot.com/

Adversity: Life from the Ashes

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

While Phil and I were driving to Crested Butte this weekend, we passed something incredibly beautiful on the side of Highway 285 (at mile marker 225 to be exact). I was struck numb by it and did not immediately know why, but I knew that I strongly identified with it. We continued to drive about a mile past before I finally asked Phil to turn around. (It actually went more like, “Babe, you’re going to think I’m crazy, but can you turn around? About a mile back there are some trees I have to see again… yes, I’m serious…”) And yes, we were in the middle of a forest, but these trees stood out among the rest. 

Phil (being incredibly understanding and wonderful like he is) turned the car around and headed back. When we got back to what I had seen, he pulled the car to the side of the road and I stared up into the tree grove with amazement.

There stood beautiful, strong, lively aspens… growing straight out of an old, weathered, wrecked house. It was a beautiful illustration of Christ, and a beautiful illustration to some of our own stories. I set my camera aside to take it all in. Even the aspens were applauding all of God’s creation with their leaves dancing in the warm afternoon breeze (which is one of my most favorite noises on earth). The trees growing strong up through the broken house illustrate adversity, the place where we can be crushed from growth, yet the place where we have the opportunity to grow the strongest through Christ’s strength, regardless of circumstance around us. 

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.”

{2 Corinthians 4:8-12}

For more blogs from Alicia visit her website at: http://wendingthewayhome.blogspot.com/

Introduction to Wending the Way

Saturday, June 25, 2011

I am incredibly excited to share Wending the Way with you through SHOUT IT Ministries. I started Wending the Way through reflections of stillness and sharing those quiet places that I heard God’s whispers. Eventually I wanted to share parts of everyday life as well. I was going to create a separate blog for this, when I realized that life is not so compartmentalized, that life is a whole journey with many different things that happen along the way, with many different places that God is saturated within. As I have continued to grow closer to Christ and grow in His truth, I have found Him everywhere: through conversations with strangers and friends alike, unexpected incredible relationships; through passions like photography, the outdoors, and music; through traveling and school—He meets us everywhere. Wending the Way is not only a play of words off of my last name (Wendland) but it is about the ponderings of life along the way, the adventures that are happening along the journey Home and the unexpected places that God meets us. Until recently, Wending the Way had just been a personal creative outlet to share my photography and reflections with a few friends and family, and whoever else checked it out. Unexpectedly, Kyle, an old high school classmate of mine, came alongside Wending the Way and gave me the opportunity to engage it as a ministry, of which I had never really looked at it as. I believe that God is doing something great and yet unseen in this ministry. It is incredible to think that over all these years He would rekindle a friendship thousands of miles away through a blog ministry, through old high school classmates that haven’t talked in years, through our passion for sharing His Word and encouraging one another in His Love. I am looking forward to sharing many adventures and reflections with you along the way as He continues to meet us in the most unexpected places.

In His Grip,
Alicia Wendland

For more blogs from Alicia visit her website at: http://wendingthewayhome.blogspot.com/