You know, you can prepare for the journey with all the right equipment. You sure can do that and I would even say it’s wise. Some prepare in different ways than others. ( at Steph, I think that was the photographer’s bad timing. She was truly stoked for this hike.)

You can prepare for the journey, but the journey will always present you with opportunities for growth no matter how proud you are of your thoughtful preparation! At some point you WILL be taught it’s not all about you. God’s at his greatest, I often think, when you’re confident and working on your own and BAM! all of a sudden there is a humbler that you smack right into. Trust me, you weren’t just clumsy, it’s an opportunity to grow in your faith. Don’t go around it to be on your way quickly, go through it. That’s the richest path always. 

In the pics above, we were starting our first hike at Yosemite. Our goal: the top of Nevada Falls, 2400 feet up from the valley floor, largely using a series of switchbacks. Now, I have a love/hate relationship with switchbacks. While switchbacks help you eventually gain the summit without having to simply climb straight up the mountain, they hold a lot of pain and lack of breath for the untrained body. Such was me just like my last kid-mom hiking adventure. I was also again an uninformed soul. 

If you remember my hikes earlier in the summer with Drew and Steph in Washington state, I was often left in the dark about the difficulty of the hike or the distance and then had well-meaning children urging me on in not so helpful ways at times. Drew’s line was it’s all in the mind or ohhh, the payoff will be worth it. Push for the payoff. Meaning the view at the end. Well, he was right on the first one I realize now though I am afraid I was fairly cross with him at points on the trail as my body hurt, my breath would not come and I was dizzy at times. Steph took all this in and found a more amenable way to encourage me. In retrospect, both methods were of value though I definitely reacted strongly then. Sorry kids. 

But this is Yosemite – new park, new ballgame – and I prepared in a way one might not think to prepare for a climb. I prayed. I prayed as we walked to the trailhead. I was told it was a 5 mile hike  with 7 switchbacks. Others were using all the apps available to tell me this. What they did not tell me is that the apps are often not accurate. I am glad I started with prayer!

It was an 8.6 mile hike and there were 13 switchbacks. Count those switchbacks! I did with labored breathing! But there was a difference this time. Yes, my body was still ripped up and my muscles shredded but instead of depending on my children to pull me along as things got rougher and rougher, I chose a different path.  When I could not take another step on those ever ascending switchbacks, I would lean on my hiking poles, head bowed to my hands, and pray to God. A prayer for strength certainly, a prayer of trust, a prayer of praise, a prayer acknowledging my need for my God and Savior in my life whether I am crippled part way up a mountain or simply doing life in relatively flat Goodrich. 

I prayed often, lol, let me tell you! I think Steph thought I was in serious physical trouble as I bent and bent over my poles repeatedly in an attitude of prayer and whispered my belief and trust and need to God over and over again. If I’d been on my knees, I don’t believe I would have gotten up! I let Steph in on my prayer power hiking process so she didn’t try to call 911 with no service and grow terrified. 

My head would always rise from those poles with strength renewed. It felt wonderful. Now this something of a cautionary tale, just one prayer didn’t get me to the mountain top – I grew weak too soon for me but not for my God. I kept creeping back into prayer position to tell God I knew he was with me and together we were climbing this mountain to see His glory at the top, while each step being in the midst of it – I never forgot that!

Staying close in God’s presence propelled me eventually to the mountaintop and the very top of Nevada Falls. All I can tell you is that faith-wise and life-wise the payoff was so worth it! Undeniable! Unforgettable! And it took your breath away in the best way possible. 

I’m sure many of you hike or have hiked but have you tried intentionally ‘prayer hiking’? (I don’t believe I have invented prayer hiking.many people like me must be driven to it.) God’s lesson came easily to me though through hard work in Yosemite for you cannot mistake the presence of God there. 

In real life, God can certainly feel distant as we live out the humdrum days or worse and we forget. Read the Bible – God’s people have often been of the forgetful sort when it comes to devotion to our same God. It eventually leads to trouble. 

But, though I can get into faith trouble too, I stopped that day and decided to start the morning with prayer and prayed for God to hike beside me and my kids. At the end of the day, as sunset came early in the Yosemite valley and the rays of God’s light crept slowly back over the mountain tops to shine on other peoples of the world; I realized just how important it is to hike in prayer all the days of our lives. There, in the darkening restful valley, I renewed my commitment to my own prayer life. 

God loves it when we join or rejoin up with him on any path or road we find ourselves on. Trust Him, not me! He is the Giver of all Grace. 

Check out the mountaintop experiences in the pictures below. No one told me God would have a recliner ready for me up there! See! God is good. Apparently, I am one of those Bible people who has to do the hard climb and hard work to be reminded that IT IS SO…until the very end of the age. 

 

~Shauna Weil