Preface to Mess

When this picture was taken, I couldn't feel my hands, hadn't been able to keep food down for three days, and hadn't caught a single fish in a month and a half. I did not catch one this day either, and proceeded to cry on the shore for twenty minutes while failing to tie palomar knots with frozen fingertips, throwing an elaborate shoreline pity party with a single sorry invitee.

Nevertheless, when posted on social media platforms this dramatic image garnered hundreds of likes, painting a portrait of a determined angler in the latest outdoor gear with a flashy rod she built herself, possibly hooking record breaking rainbows as quickly as she could cast. The girl in the picture is determined; the girl in the picture knows what she is doing. And yet, the girl in the picture isn't perfect. She cries, she loses lures to the weeds and birdnests her line in a careless moment.

As I begin to share content here and expand upon my other channels, I just wanted to preface it by saying airbrushed perfection is not my goal. Life is messy, grace is MESSY, and I am messy. Do not for a minute let me fool you into believing that it's all sunsets, Bible studies, successful hunts, competition wins and Hallelujah on the back porch. One of the greatest and most unfortunate illusions of social media is that everything appears so effortless - this can cause others to feel like somehow, by encountering life's everyday hurdles, they don't measure up. Content creators filter more than just the images themselves - they also filter which content they choose to share, and which highlight reels are worthy of the public eye. Rarely do we see anything uncut, rarely do we catch a glimpse of the climb on the way to the summit. However, my goal isn't to alienate, create anything unattainable, or to make anyone feel like less than enough - rather, it is to inspire and help you pursue a relationship with the outdoors, and the Lord who created it. I want to be a builder of bridges rather than hold stock in the erecting of walls or shilling of fun house mirror illusions. For the sake of transparency, and for all the kids in my inbox who look up to me, I want to share real content with you, coming from a real, flawed, and fallible person, saved and living through grace alone. Instead of pretending obstacles don't exist, I want to paint maps of the mountains I've climbed, help you scale your own, and celebrate together all the way up. 

 Grab your gear.