Our Wonderful, Ramshackle Dock

With the kids coming home for “Camp Armstrong,” it seemed like we really needed some way to access our lake besides wading through waist-deep muck! Icontacted our local officials and discovered that the DNR and DEQ (that stands for “Department of Environmental Quality”…an organization I’d never even heard of before) required a site visit (which we did), a visit to their office (whichI did), getting plans drawn up by a builder (in process), filling out a 50-page application (waiting on the builder’s specs), and will take months to get approvalplus require many thousands of dollars to build…probably by 2013. “Yes, but thekids are coming in August, and the water level was so low that there’s 50 feet of muck between us and good, clean fun on the lake! So, what should we do?It just so happened that Stephen had built us a new retaining wall around our parking area, and we still had the old boards he’d replaced with bricks. Being among that elite group that “yoosed to be yooppers,” (Michigan’s wild and wooly Upper Peninsula, where people work to live, not live to work) the men took matters into their own hands and built us a temporary dock of boards & stumps to keep us all happy until such a time as a dock fit for the Grand Poobah is built.Frankly, I love our rustic “Camp Armstrong” dock just the way it is! We were able to get out to swim and play in the lake during our family reunion,and it makes hopping into the kayak for an early morning paddle sheer joy!I wonder, has there been such a dry season in your life that it seems like 50 feet of muck have come between you and a happy, wholesome life? Don’t wait until every last detail is in place for the “perfect” life. Look around you and take hold of what you have. Ask God to help you build a bridge to goodness and joy, and I believe that both you and God will take pleasure in it.