Someone once told us that they thought Mongolia wasn’t a country for the faint-hearted. Maybe that’s true. Certainly, the long winters can be unpredictable. Months of sub-zero temperatures and savage weather present untold danger to man and animal alike. Yet there is a beauty in this feral land. Winter is cold, but the days are often crisp with brightness as the sky, an uninterrupted canopy of blue, gives the sun limitless space in which to shine, and taking full advantage, the sun coats everything in iridescent light.

We’d always thought winter tourism could flourish in Mongolia. So, when we heard a recent mention of the ‘Mongol 100’ our ears pricked up. We had no idea what it was but, after a short investigation, we found that a British-based adventure tour company had begun an intriguing winter challenge across the frozen surface of Lake Khovsgol.

Located in Northern Mongolia close to the Siberian border and with a depth of 262 metres, Khovsgol is the largest freshwater lake in Mongolia. From December to April it is frozen with ice, reputedly as thick as one metre in places. People used to drive their vehicles across the lake in an endeavour to avoid longer routes around it, but that practice has been banned.

Stretching just over one hundred miles from tip to toe, Khovsgol is impressive. We once travelled north to visit a friend. It was November and the lake, not yet completely frozen, groaned deeply as tectonic-like plates of ice shifted and creaked.

The Mongol 100’s challenge is to traverse the length of Lake Khovsgol by foot, ice-skates or bicycle over a certain number of days in early spring. In freezing temperatures with the Siberian wind biting its teeth into your skin, it’s a brutal and gruelling slog to the finish line.

Despite the pain and the discomfort endured, people say they wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Fears were crushed, hardships overcome, and with the challenge completed, the accompanying sense of triumph was precious. They have an accolade to cherish. But they did not achieve it alone. Each participant was rooting for the other, as they did their best to reach the finish. In retelling the adventure there is joy and satisfaction. We did it! But curiously, alongside that there’s a rumbling dissatisfaction, a longing, that hankers for more.

I wonder, did God create us for more?

Does that rumbling disquiet propel us out of our armchairs and push us forward? Perhaps we won’t skate the length of Lake Khovsgol, or even scale a mountain, but without that sense of dissatisfaction in our hearts will we keep pursuing God? Will we keep seeking to know His Son, Jesus Christ, more deeply?

Ignoring the conditions and distractions around us, let’s focus our eyes forward. We are pursuing our goal, a life of growing faith in Christ. Our muscles are taut, we are stretched to the limit of our capacity. We are following. Sometimes we slow down, sometimes we meander off the track. We need to utilise God’s provision of grace. We need our friends’ support. We need them to spur us on to keep on growing. We need to change, to build up stamina that strengthens our trust and faith in God, so that we too can finish the challenge and complete our course.