CLOC Club and adapting to the ongoing adventure

I recently received an invitation to a reunion for the CLOC Club.  That invitation took me back to the school year, 1976-77.  It was my second year at Reedley College.  Reedley is a Jr. or Community college, and it easy access for those of us who hadn't quite made up their minds yet, or just needed to save some money.  It took just 15 minutes to drive there from my parents' home.  That year I was also president of the CLOC Club. The letters stand for Christian Living on Campus, and its a chapter of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.  We met twice a week for large group meetings and small group Bible study.  We also held several events, a weekend camp and a street theatre presentation of Noah's Ark by the Lamb's Players of San Diego.  While many of my friends scattered to distant regions after Reedley College, many of the CLOC Club members from those days stayed in close contact, and we tried to get together periodically.  

I was happy for this invitation.  The reunion is in October, but I sent in my regrets, along with a link to this blog.  Tied to an oxygen concentrator or tanks now, I don't travel well any more, and being constantly short of breath makes it harder to talk much. Several friends responded to say they would be praying for me and even offered to set up a Zoom link so we might still be able offer greetings, though at a distance. 

That's become the story of my life.  It's called adapting.  We all have to be adaptable in order to survive the adventures of life.  Life is a journey, after all. I like adventure stories.  At the core of The Lord of the Rings is an adventure.  A group of nine people set out on this journey, including four hobbits, who have a reputation for disliking adventures. Their plan is to destroy the magic Ring in the very fires that created it in the first place.  They don't know exactly how they will get there, because the fire is in Mordor, which is protected by Sauron, the evil lord.  That goal becomes their defining vision.  It also raises lots of problems along the way, not just external problems like weather and enemies, but foes within.  Over time the group surface competing interests, and divergent itineraries, some even rethinking the main goal itself.  Fortunately, the ring bearer himself, Frodo, remains sufficiently committed to the vision to keep on going, even when the Fellowship falters. 

In my current journey I like to hold up a vision of myself walking unaided in a high Sierra Meadow, surrounded by glaciated peaks, hearing the sound of the wind blowing through aspen leaves, and breathing free and easy.  No oxygen tanks or concentrators.  This is an inspiring vision for me.  I don't know exactly how that will happen. The only known medical route is a lung transplant.  I've been in evaluation mode for the last year, but I've had a few detours that now makes it feel about as remote as Mount Doom did to Frodo and Sam. Indeed sometimes I've fretted that I am not going to make it.  Of course, anxiety is big deal, and it's important to talk about it, because anxious feelings can become as big an obstacle as anything else. 

But I like to stay focused on that vision, to imagine what it looks and feels like, and to try and construct a pathway that will get me there.  Obstacles will occur, and anxieties will pull you down, so we'll need to adapt to the situation. I've changed my retired plans, eliminated travel plans, and turned down some gatherings.  I'm also adapting my physical space to suit my needs.  Beds and chairs are piled with pillows and foam wedges, and I have a space for the wheel chair.  I'm not sure if a home hospital bed is in order yet, but Chin Cheak and I have discussed it.  Besides all that adapting, one thing needs to be clear, my vision, to see it, hear the it, touch it, smell it, and taste it.  

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
    from where will my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth. - Psalm 121 

Please continue to lift up my wife and I in prayer as we go through this adventure together.