Of Lava Tubes, Myths, and Adventures in Faith
After we purchased our cabin in northern Arizona, we began to hear the rumors. The claims. The stories. “There’s a blow hole near here. A collapsed lava tube.”
A hunt in our hiking books revealed nothing. A search on tourist websites came up empty. The blow hole seemed to be a place only locals knew about. And not all locals.
“I’ve lived here sixty years and never seen it,” one white-haired octogenarian stated.
“Just a myth,” another exclaimed.
So, when we were invited to be shown the location on a Saturday morning, my husband Kevin and I—along with other family members and three grandchildren—jumped at the chance.
We followed the lead vehicle down a dirt road, past a spring, over several cattle guards, and under the hanging boughs of Ponderosa pines and oak trees. After an hour of twists and turns on logging roads and a nasty encounter with a boulder, we stopped near a sunken ravine in the otherwise flat forest floor. The collapsed lava tube!
Three generations lowered themselves through a four-foot wide hole—the only entry. After scrambling over rough boulders, we entered a large chamber cooled by fifty-degree air. The more adventurous in the group explored narrow fissures, created tens of thousands of years ago when a volcano exploded from the inside out.
“Have you ever been in a cave before,” Kevin asked Benjamin, age 3 ½, as he guided our talkative grandson through a narrow section of the lava tube.
“This is my first time on my journey,” Benjamin answered.
His first time. His first time of stepping into the darkness, while clutching a single beam to light the way.
Don’t we all have that first time? When myth becomes faith? When someone else’s story becomes our own?
In a culture addicted to certainty and not faith, maybe we all need to lower ourselves underground where hot lava once flowed. Maybe we need reminding of what it was like when it was our first time on our journey, when we stumbled in the darkness with only enough light to take one more step.
And then another. Into our own faith.
For we walk by faith. --2 Corinthians 5:7
lava tube meme
Lava tube entrance
Lava tube entrance
inside the lava tube
This post recently appeared in the SanTan Sun and other East Valley papers. See page 42. There is a slidey thing at the bottom of the page for quick navigation.
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Review of The Rank Game
(And a Chance to Win Your Own Free Copy!)
Back around Thanksgiving, I reviewed The Rank Game as the inventers were trying to get enough money through Kickstarter to move it past a great idea into production. They were successful (high fives all around!!!!) and I now hold a finished copy of the game in my hand.
the Rank game
THE RANK GAME is by Dana Brown (homeschool mom and former Disney Imagineer) and Chip Brown (former Disney Studio producer and publisher at Zondervan, Thomas Nelson and Walk Thru the Bible). Chip and Dana created The Rank Game and their new company Storyastic to appeal to people's desire for fun while at the same time providing tech-free together time during which people's relationships become stronger.
Our family played this game and had a blast trying to guess how each family member would rank the questions and earn points. Created for groups of all sizes, THE RANK GAME leverages our own social behaviors—ranking the things or experiences in our lives.
For example, rank the four seasons: A) fall B) spring C) summer D) winter
Your ranking might be different from mine, and we’re likely passionate about why. In THE RANK GAME, players must guess one another’s rankings to get points and win the game. IT’S THAT SIMPLE. Different versions of the game can be played, whether there are two people or an entire family reunion in the room! The game works with people who have known each other for years and for those who are getting acquainted.
Side note: And as someone who has just finished playing all types of games over Zoom during quarantine, let me just add, that this game would work GREAT for a Zoom game night of family or friends.
5 stars for me.
Click here for a chance to win a game yourself.
If you want more info, click here.
You can find them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and under the hashtag, #therankgame.
Lots of expansion sets!!
ABOUT LYNNE HARTKE
Lynne Hartke shares stories of courage, beauty, and belonging--belonging to family, to community, and to a loving God. She is the author of Under a Desert Sky: Redefining Hope, Beauty, and Faith in the Hardest Places.
For a free ebook of desert flowers and hope, click here: Breath of Hope, A Desert Photo Collection.
Keep updated on future blogs.A link to a FB group on Bible Journaling Through Psalms.