We're all just Bush-kids in a Plastic world!

I didn't drop off the planet, just 'unwired' myself and got close to nature. I spent a few days recently in a National Park camping area where there are no showers, no conveniences apart from a few spider-webby toilets (and I was SO thankful for them!). A brown creek ran along the camp site, feral bush kids got wonderfully dirty, mixing between families and catching taddies, the adults sat around talking about the heat and swimming in the coca-cola coloured creek with leeches (I wasn't that brave!).

It really gives you a bit of perspective to 'rough it' for a bit. Not only from the stinky, itchy, buggy gross-ness of the outdoors, but from realising that there are still stars in the sky, frogs aren't extinct yet, people are friendly and fires are the best conversation-starters ever! But the biggest revelation I had in the 'rough-as-guts' part of my trip (that was REAL camping on a 41 DEGREE CELSIUS day), ....without all the man-made stuff we have built around us, like houses with insulation, air-conditioning, fridges etc... we are still COMPLETELY at the mercy of the environment. That sense of vulnerability helped me to realise that the poorest, most undeveloped peoples of the world have an incredible gift - appreciating their true weakness and God's true strength.

Aren't we so smart that we can control our own finite environment, hot, cold, whatever we like it to be! But we've somehow lost our humility in that sense of power found in technology and 'advancement of the species'. Personally I enjoy the life of air-conditioned comfort, but it carries a sacrifice, disconnection from the environment (the outdoors) and how God is revealing himself through every part of it. Taking a walk on a bush-track finds you at the mercy of whatever animal trod the clearest line in the ground in front of you. The uniqueness of nature is breathtaking, no production line involved, no 'made in China' tags, just the unmistakable fingerprint of God.

The challenge? rediscover your vulnerability by getting back to nature and discarding the 'comfortable'. Then listen for the whisper, look for the fingerprint.