The Lost Art of Apprenticeship

Apprentice - one who is learning by practical experience under skilled workers a trade, art, or calling.

It's amazing how our minds can process smell and connect what we smell to certain memories, people, places, and feelings. For some this might be the smell of the ocean, pine forests, old library books, or a certain air freshener that causes our minds to be instantly taken back to days gone by. For me, the unique smell of raw tanned leather is one of the most powerful in bringing my mind to remember a very special season of my life during my late high school and college years.

In today's world, if you want to learn a new skill you can simply Google it. The internet has become an unmatched repository of DIY training videos, "hacks", guides, reviews, and instructions of how to do nearly anything you could ever aspire to accomplish. Whether your looking to install a fence, train for a marathon, teach your child to walk, or even learn how to fly fish, you can just Google it and you'll find no less than 150 million results for any one of those prompts. Pretty amazing, extremely efficient, but at what cost?

Imagine rewinding 100 years, finding a young man on a river, and asking him how he learned to fish. I'd be willing to bet that he learn learned it from someone not something. For me, I've taken advantage of all kinds of DIY online videos teaching me how to wire GFCI outlets, install a tile subfloor, and fix my refrigerator, just to name a few. Years ago, completing each of these tasks yourself generally would have required contacting someone who knew how to do the task and asking them to show you. In the context of this practical teaching, relationship would develop so that by the time you had your tile floor installed, you also had a stronger relationship with the person who taught you. Unfortunately, our Google and YouTube trained world has at least partially short-circuited what was previously an avoidable necessity of developing teacher/student relationships with real living people in your community.

For me, the smell of raw leather brings me back to a job I had with a man named Jerry who owns an automotive upholstery business near my hometown. I had developed a relationship with Jerry in my church youth group where he served as a volunteer leader and he invited me to work part time at his shop helping out where ever I could. In hindsight, this part time job was one of the greatest blessings of my teen years. It was in the context of the sometimes tedious but always rewarding work of helping Jerry with his business that I learned the value of good conversation in the midst of hard work. We each had a workbench about 20 feet apart and Jerry would assign me a task and then go to completing his own work. We steadily worked and periodically mixed in talk about life, our church, politics, future plans, school, pretty much anything. Jerry would have customers come in the shop and I would watch as he interacted with them, we ate lunch together and then some evenings would go out for a bike ride together. My work in Jerry's shop took place during some of the most formative years of my life and Jerry's influence on the direction of my life through our conversations and work together could not be overstated.

From a biblical perspective, we might call this type of relationship, discipleship. It's a relationship where one person, a little bit further along in their faith, walks alongside another with the goal of seeing them grow in Christlikeness. Discipleship requires time together, it offers instruction, invites imitation, and often occurs in the context of friendship. Jerry made it a priority to spend time with me, this time was in all parts of life - work, church, dinner with his family, and even hobbies (cycling). I watched him interact with all different types of people, some Christian, many not, and I learned to imitate him both in the work that we did together and in my pursuit of Jesus. This is discipleship and this is what we are called to pursue. In Hebrews 13:7 the Bible teaches us to "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith." Likewise 2 Timothy 3:10 Paul wrote about Timothy, "You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings." Finally, in 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul wrote, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ". This is the fundamental call to men in our families, churches and communities. I pray that our lives are worthy of imitation, for Christ's sake and for His glory, and that we humbly invite others to follow us as we follow Christ.

Be an apprentice, find an apprentice.

Over the Handlebars

There is a principal, or maybe a rule, that applies to a few different sports which goes something like this:

Don't look where you don't want to go.

It's most important in what some might call "extreme" sports like rally car racing, downhill skiing, mountain biking, or motocross and the consequences of disobeying this rule increase exponentially as your speed increases. The first time I experienced this rule firsthand I was mountain biking at Kittatinny Valley State Park (KVSP) in Andover, NJ. I got into mountain biking with about a million others in the spring of 2020 when COVID was keeping everyone homebound, sort of, and participation in all manner of outdoor exercise skyrocketed. A small group of guys I know started riding every week at KVSP, I joined them and couldn't get enough of it. It's fast, requires some technical skills, provides a great workout, and allows for the purchase of some cool gear (a bike, primarily). Suffice it to say, I am a bit of a sucker for new, cool gear, and this hobby was definitely checking that box.

The mountain biking at KVSP is generally singletrack, cross country style biking. This means that your riding on trails that can only fit one bike at a time and the trails cover all types of terrain. You'll have steep climbs, flowy sections, rock gardens, rail trails, and LOTS of tree roots. Our neck of the woods is pretty rocky in general and KVSP is no exception, especially on a few particularly technical trails through the center of the park. On the particular day where I experience the "don't look where you don't want to go" rule, I was riding the blue dot trail which features a steep climb that transitions into a steep rocky descent. The climbs in this section are often quite fun and challenging because they require picking the perfect line and maintaining enough speed to get over any rocks or roots without losing all of your forward momentum. Often, at the top of the hill I'll take a quick breather before hitting the descent on the other side, but on this day I felt good and so I pedaled straight through.

It's a winding descent that starts with a gentle left turn as the incline steepens. As with most trails, steep sections will have the fastest flowing water during storms and so they experience the worst erosion and often have dramatically more exposed rock and roots. About half way down this particular section there is a large rock jutting up on left side of the trail, about a 15" gap to ride through, and then a large cut tree on the right side. At the point where you would pass through this small gap your speed is relatively high and since its rough you'll usually be standing and leaning pretty far back to compensate for the incline and absorb the bumps. As I came around the left turn and into the fast, steep section I looked up an saw the gap I needed to ride through. The problem was, I didn't keep my eyes on the gap. I looked at the rock on the left and it was autopilot from there on out. As soon as my eyes locked on that rock, my bike was headed for it.

We lean back on a steep descent to avoid going over the handlebars but in this case there was no amount of leaning that was going to keep my body in an upright position. I nailed the rock head on, no brakes applied, straight over the handlebars with my bike following me - now above me rather than under me. I hit hard, shoulder first, on some fairly rocky ground but amazingly escaped unscathed aside from a few bumps and bruises. I had been told the rule, but now I experienced it. Don't look where you don't want to go.

It's a rule in mountain biking and it's also a rule in life. We need to be aware of our surroundings, aware of the risks ahead but most importantly we must keep our focus on the "line" that God is calling us to, the narrow way. If we get distracted looking at the risks and focusing on the dangers we'll easily find ourselves wandering off track. In the book of Proverbs, Solomon writes to his son a warning along these same lines where he writes,

Let your eyes look directly ahead

And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.

Watch the path of your feet,

And all your ways will be established.

Do not turn to the right or to the left;

Turn your foot from evil.

Proverbs 4:25-27

Solomon warned his son against allowing his eyes to wander because he knew the temptation to do so would be great, and so would the consequences. I pray that as you and I walk through our daily lives, we keep our eyes on the narrow way. The pace of life speeds up with jobs, kids, activities, and responsibilities. Along with the speed of life comes countless opportunities to lose focus on the path and begin to fall into an "autopilot" pursuit of the things that the world teaches us to focus on. Power, wealth, pleasure, and comfort are just a few of the rocks that we can easily become distracted by and draw us off the path to life and onto a path that leads to destruction. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul encouraged the church with these words which are as true today in our lives as they were for Paul,

Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:12-14

We keep our eyes on the narrow path not just to avoid destruction, but to obtain life in it's fullest. There is nothing more satisfying in mountain biking than successfully riding a long, fast downhill section with lots of opportunities to fall, but this type of of riding requires tremendous focus and control. In a similar way, as we navigate this life full of temptations and opportunities to fail there will ultimately be no more satisfying and God glorifying path than the one God calls us into in his Word. That path, however, requires tremendous focus and self control. Its a path fraught with danger and difficulty that no man could successfully navigate alone, but thanks be to God that he has promised to be our guide, our savior, provider, helper and friend on this path. May we become witness who can testify boldly to the unmatched joy and satisfaction found in keeping our eyes on Christ.

Clouds on the Horizon

At 34 years old, married and with three kids I think I've officially moved beyond the "young adult" phase of life and started stepping into, or maybe running into, the "middle age" phase of life. At this point, I should theoretically have some experience under my belt to navigate life with a bit more grace than I may have had in my teens or twenties, but I often encounter nagging doubts in my mind about how I will actually respond if, or when, some more serious trials emerge in my life.

By God's grace, I've walked through these first 34 years of life without much external adversity. Without question, I've faced numerous trials rooted in my own poor decisions and in dealing with sin in my life but these have been mostly my own doing. In God's providence I was blessed with a healthy family both growing up and now in my own home. I haven't had to walk through some relatively common trials like sickness or death of loved ones, job loss, long term poverty, war, or divorce. While this has certainly been a blessing I am also regularly reminded that this will not always be the case. If I'm honest, there have been times where I've questioned how I would fair through a more severe trial, and it has worried me at times to know that I can't always see what's on the horizon. I was reminded of this on a recent trip to Alaska where I had the opportunity to spend a few days hiking in Denali National Park.

We flew into Fairbanks, Alaska for the last full week of August. A great friend of mine is serving in the Army at Fort Wainwright and I've been putting off visiting him and his family for a few years now. This year, I decided that I couldn't justify putting of the trip for another year as as he'll likely be transferred to another base by next summer. As I've moved into "middle aged" life, one of the other changes has been the novelty of a bank account with greater than three digit balances which allows for periodic trips like this one.

We planned to set our itinerary generally on-the-fly in response to weather conditions but we knew there would likely be some rain to deal with. We intended to try to spend at least one day, if not more, hiking in Denali. In order to see the mountain we knew we would need a relatively clear day in the park as we'd done a little research in advance to find that only 30% of park visitors are able to see Denali during their visit.

Based on the best weather forecasting we could find we decided to set our day in the park as Wednesday. The forecast was still a bit spotty but it the best window we could see in the forecasts we were able to find. We arrived Tuesday night and our first attempt to book a tent campsite in the park was quickly derailed when we were told that tent camping was temporarily closed because they had a bear tearing holes in tents the prior day. We were advised to find another private campground outside the park, which turned out to be about a mile away... I'm sure the bears don't travel that far.

We enjoyed a dry evening around a small campfire with some dehydrated camp meals for dinner and then turned in for the evening. After an uneventful night without any unwanted furry visitors we set out for the park in the morning. As we left camp we began to catch glimpses of the mountains which were covered in the same overcast, low clouds as we had seen the prior day on our drive down from Fairbanks to Denali. We spent the morning hiking in the park and then planned to take the park bus out farther into the park where we hoped to get a glimpse of Denali.

The entire day I was struck by how beautiful the weather was in the area of the park we were hiking yet out on the horizon the clouds were just low enough the conceal the giant Denali peak. We spent our day enjoying views of the foothills and wildlife. Photographer Jack Brauer captured the spectacular beauty of Denali coming out of the clouds in the link below. You can easily see the rocky foothills which appear, in their own right, to be formidable peaks. Then, Brauer accurately describes, "when the clouds break up and Denali emerges, its massive scale is mind-boggling, like a Himalayan peak got misplaced in Alaska."

https://www.mountainphotography.com/photo/denali-in-the-clouds/?gallery=alaska-and-yukon

In many ways, the nature of Denali being hidden in the clouds parallels the trepidation that I've felt with regard to trials that are almost certainly looming on the horizon. The trials are currently concealed and I'm living in a season of good weather, easy conditions. I'm not able to see it coming but it is only a matter of time until a new trial emerges and must be reckoned with. The question I've faced is, how do I prepare? What can I do now to prepare to walk through a trial that could easily be at a scale I've never encountered?

At the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes for us this very situation in the parable of the two builders, or two foundations. In Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus teaches his followers with these words:

Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash.

In this parable we see two men who each built themselves a home. Each of the men had opportunity to plan where to build their home, and they would have known that storms do sometimes occur. When they were building their homes, the weather was fine - there was no storm to face. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, the storm came and revealed the strength of the foundation of each man's home. The firm foundation of the home built on the rock did not protect his home from the storm, it upheld the home through the storm. Both men faced the same rain and wind pounding on their homes. In the same way, each of us will encounter storms in life that will reveal the strength of our foundation.

The parable defines the man who built his house on the rock as the man who "hears these words of mine and acts on them." So we might say that the rock that we build on, to be upheld through the storm, is a two part rock. First, we hear the words of Jesus. How do we do this? We spend time in the word of God, we sit under biblical teachers, we pray and listen for God's Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. Then, part two, we act on the words we hear. James 1:22-25 describes a person who hears the word of God and fails to act:

But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.

In some ways, this approach to preparation for trials may seem a bit simplistic. We tend to look for fancy programs, concepts, books, or new approaches to deal with complex realities in our lives. In this case though, I think there is a strong argument to be made that our best preparation for whatever storms may be on the horizon of our lives is in hearing the word of God and acting on it. Humbling ourselves to listen closely to God's word and then respond to him when the "weather" is good in our lives will be invaluable preparation when the storm is raging.

It's my prayer that you make time to sit and listen to the word of God and then act on it. The bible teaches that we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10) He doesn't need you to do his bidding - he invites you into his redeeming work to experience and truly know his goodness, sovereignty, and grace. As you walk in the works he prepared you will grow in our faith toward him. As you hear his words, walk where he leads, and see the grace he pours out towards you, your trust and faith in him will grow into a firm foundation that can carry you through any storm or over any mountain that emerges on the horizon of your life.