On pioneering.

At the first of the year, my roommate and I were sitting in our cozy little living room chatting over some tea and doing nothing special. As we were getting up and heading to bed, I made a passing comment about how I wished I had a good fiction book to read. Often I find myself wishing that and I either go to the library and get really frustrated not knowing which book to spend my time on OR I stare at my book shelf wondering why I have so many non-fiction books begging to be read. I just want a book to get lost in and to not give a second thought about it. When I was a kid, it was The Babysitters Club or some sort of Judy Blume book that I'd stay up way to late with. As an adult, it's a lot harder to not be critical of what you are reading ... I usually give up half way through.

SO, Melissa handed me a book called "Homestead" by Jane Kirkpatrick. I wrinkled my nose at her and said, "I don't think so, it's not even fiction." With my nose still purposely wrinkled, Melissa proceeded to explain to me that it was a great memoir about this couple who purchase land in rural Oregon in the 80's with plans to "settle" it. "It's really good Jordanne," she said confidently, shoving the book into my hands. To which I now confess, memoirs are ACTUALLY my FAVORITE. A well written memoir trumps fiction for me almost any day.

Well, three weeks later, I couldn't agree with her more. It actually has met my expectations of what a good read should be. Not to mention I have found parallel after parallel from this true story that relates to mine. They had an unexpected draw to just "do something" with their lives. Even when everyone told them they were crazy to build and farm land that was full of rattlesnakes and rocks, they still pushed, plowed and prayed as they pioneered "Starvation Point" (as it was known to the locals). I don't know about you, but "Starvation Point" sure doesn't make a call to the faint of heart!

I've been surprised as I have read this book how related it is to my life currently. I'm not pioneering unsettled land in a physical sense, but I sure am in the spiritual sense. And the parallels are uncanny really. Jane often draws on the comforting fact that although pioneering was new to her and incredibly painful, women had done it for hundreds of years prior to her, in even rougher elements and without the technology we have today. They had won lots of battles against rattlesnakes and weather, and all they knew was they were pioneers and this is what they "do" for the promise of a different future.

For Jane, all she had to bank on was God's voice that said, "Go to the land and write." Where I find myself now, I know that others have indeed gone before me and done these things I'm called to. That gives me comfort and actually helps me exercise faith in God's promises. If He showed up for them, what's keeping me from believing He'll show up for me too? I know that no amount of rattlesnakes should keep me from the land God wants pioneered. In fact, my job is to find out how to find and conquer them, not run from them.

As I finish Jane's book, I just opened to the last section and was met with this quote:
"We seek neither convenience nor ease, but to live at the edge of possibility."

Now that's inspiration.