I have been to the mountain!

Sounds so Biblical or reminiscent of MLK Jr., right? But there is truth in that statement for I first went with my husband for some time away from the busyness of the farm and we hiked the mountains in southeastern Arizona. Then we came home and I took off with my daughter Stephanie and we went to Utah and did the Mighty 5, hiking mountains and canyons for almost 9 days. 

The more I hike with my kids, the more I am convinced that hiking is a wonderful metaphor for our faith lives. Steph pushed me and she pushed me hard. It was a vacation but I also pushed myself hard because I knew she wanted to see what every park had to offer and my failure of will might hinder gaining that goal. Even though my will did not fail, my more than twice her age body kinda did. I damaged myself the second day on a river hike called The Narrows – it is a very popular hike in Zion, so maybe some of you have done it. In March, the mountain snow melt is farther along and hence the river water level is higher and running hard against you as you hike up the river against its flow between narrowed canyon walls. The temp was about 50 degrees and the water temp was at about 55 degrees. 

I was so frustrated with myself when on my journey several miles in, I lost focus and stumbled on the rocky bottom of the river accompanied by an unexpected low spot I dropped into with a jolt putting me almost up to my waist in powerfully moving river water and I went down – not once but twice. I took on gallons of cold cold river water in my waders and cracked my knee against a river rock. I cried in frustration that this had happened to me and I had denied my daughter the full hike. I determined to push on. On we went but the cold of the day with the totally soaked nature of all of my clothes and I mean all, forced me to tell Steph that I was uncontrollably shivering and I wasn’t sure what had happened to my knee, my fingers wouldn’t bend around my river hiking pole anymore and we had miles to hike to get back out of the narrows to a shuttle bus to return us to civilization where I could get out of all the gear and take stock of my situation. 

She saw the need. I was upset because I absolutely loved that hike and one or two careless moments had me going down and ending it for both of us. 

That was just one hike. There were many that challenged me. In Zion, you started at the foot of the mountain and always hiked up and at the end of the hike you came down – which seems easier but affords its own set of rigors on different muscles. But, say, in Bryce Canyon,  you always started on the rim of the canyon and hiked down in first, knowing that the arduous climb would come at the end of your journey. But, oh so gorgeous! It was colder than Zion and the strong wind ripped right through you sending cold into your very bones, even though we were layered and topped off with our warm puffy coats and were working hard and generating heat from our bodies. Such journeys – each one different but presenting challenges to my body, mind and soul. 

I learned after my trip with Dan not to go so heavy on books in my backpack. So in traveling with Steph I reduced my books to a Sarah Young devotion book and one more book. I felt bare without more books but it was the right call and I made the right choices. I was either hiking, traveling to another park to hike or just too tired to even think of reading.

I prayed a lot on that vacation and I saw the struggles with hiking each route as a close parallel to things I struggle with each and every day in my faith life or more simply said ‘in my life’. I did regularly read my devotions. I kept returning to one devotion often. There were many that I read that were so comforting to me and they nourished me. But the one I kept returning to reminded me of something very important and hard to remember in the busyness of our days and even in my temporary misery on some of our hikes. I’d like to quote a portion for you now from Jesus Today by Sarah Young. May her words speak to your life in a way that resonates and feeds you, as it did for me. (Remember she writes as if Jesus is speaking directly to you.)

“There is an open road ahead of you – all the way to heaven. I am your traveling Companion, and I know every twist and turn of your path. You see problems and limitations impeding your progress no matter which direction you look. But your vision is ever so limited. All I ask of you is to take the next small step – refusing to give up, refusing to stop trusting Me. 

“Your life is truly a faith-walk, and I am absolutely faithful! Though your understanding will fail you, I never will. The challenge before you is to stop focusing on your problems and limitations – and to believe that the way ahead is really an open road, in spite of how it looks.

“When you are struggling, simply take the next step and thank Me for clearing the way before you – all the way to heaven.”

I took God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit with me every day on the trails we hiked and kept them close as the elevation inevitably got too hard for me to challenge on my own strength alone. Though the way was often difficult and I could not see how I would gain enough air in my lungs and power in my muscles to finish the course, I did every time. By small steps and never giving up that all important trust when I couldn’t see but feet ahead of me on my journey’s path – I couldn’t see the goal or prize sometimes for hours on a hike. This is life and I have brought home a rich souvenir that came at a cost to me but nothing anywhere near the cost that our Savior paid for us. 

Hiking kills me regularly, but there is also something that keeps drawing me back as I learn deep lessons of faith that it seems I do not gain in other ways. I have brought this lesson home and pray that I will honor it in life in my regular surroundings for it affords me peace to know I ultimately have to give my trust, not to myself or others, but to Father, Son and Holy Spirit alone. 

Have resolve, Devotioneers! Absolutely refuse to let your trust in God waiver. Remember our vision is limited whether we can see it or not. 

~Shauna Weil

A devotion provided by the Devotion Ministry of Goodrich UMC