Yosemite Reflections

My mother was very slow, especially in her later years. There was always one more thing to do or notice or say slowly before we could leave to go to a doctor appointment or out on an errand which we called adventures. It did no good to pressure her for that was her life speed at that point and hurrying her caused ‘flustration’ on both sides. And so I waited. 

In those years of waiting, I learned where richness dwelt. In waiting. Time to think and grow, to watch a lovely soul do life as it had been delivered to her. All things were not easy for her to accomplish. Even the simplest of things were much more difficult to do in ways many of us do not even begin to understand. And yet she did them. She didn’t complain much about the challenge it was each time she wanted to just stand up. Yet for her to rise up and out of her seat and transfer to her wheel chair as I waited for the process to unfold, always with an eye to her safety, was an event in itself. She met the task each time with determination magnified by grace and sometimes those were the moments in life when the best most true things passed between us as mother and daughter. One more I love you. One more word of appreciation about something, whether it be a bird at her feeder or that sly squirrel that often scaled the heights of her building looking for treats on her balcony, or an insight she had been contemplating for who knows how long was finally given voice. Yes, sometimes I did feel impatient but richness with my mom was often to be found and experienced in the seemingly wasted time of what we would call waiting. I’m sure I missed the opportunity more than once. Certainly my loss. 

We are asked to wait upon the Lord. There is that word again. Will we spend our time feeling frustrated, impatient and even angry? Or will we wait with expectant and joyful hearts? We can choose – God grants us that. Let us choose wisely as we wait through the last moments in Advent with an elevated sense of awareness of what we ultimately wait for. 

Advent is a time to teach us this so that we may use it in our faith lives daily, which is no different than our everyday lives if you call yourself disciple, or in more contemporary terms, child of the one true God.

Yosemite is present in this devotion, as I sit atop Taft Point and survey God’s creation in the picture at the top of this devotion. I was waiting with expectancy in an amazing place for the ways He will enter my life anew. I was pondering expectantly the measures by which I may remain open to God’s work in me. I committed to waiting as He gives me strength and hope and courage and, yes, even more patience to wait upon Him as I learn better the ways to serve Him and others on this journey I am on. I had worked hard to gain that vista of the Yosemite valley far far below me, El Capitan, Yosemite Falls and Half Dome. It was just a lesson for me that we all must work hard. God did not say following Him would be easy; he did say if we were weary He would give us rest. But He didn’t ever say it would be easy! Look at the disciples of Jesus’ time. The Way was not easy! They often suffered, they often gave their very lives but they knew for whom they lived. Do we know that? I ask myself as much as I ask you. 

My children had to wait for me often on the trail to Taft Point. Were they impatient? Perhaps. Did we all share in extreme bountiful richness as we journeyed? I certainly hope so! God with us is what it is in its truest sense. More simply said, Emmanuel. And more quietly said…..Emmanuel. 

Let’s all wait for it. It is a practice to be exercised in the quiet times, the painful times and the boisterous times. There is much to be gained in learning to wait. May our practice lead us to riches beyond measure. 

Happy Advent and may peace and joy be yours in quiet ways, in the smallest ways and even in huge celebratory ways this Christmas and on into the God-filled days ahead. Each of us will experience these days in different ways. Wait for it. Whatever comes to us from the Master, if we are open to recognizing and receiving, may be beyond our ken. But not forever, if we make sure, though others may have to wait upon us (don’t forget you and I are included in that ‘us’ too!) that we take time to ponder these things in our hearts, just as Mary did. 

Wait in peace this season and in the seasons life gives to us, my friends – Emmanuel. 

~Shauna Weil

A devotion provided by the Devotion Ministry of Goodrich UMC 

OMGOSH! Here I spent all that time writing a devotion to share with you and then I just found a song that already says what I just said! What a waste of my time! Really? Do you believe that?! Take a listen to John Waller’s While I’m Waiting, and, oh, should I be sorry to have made you wait? I, myself, would ponder that. 

Yosemite Reflections 

Dedicated to John Page-Tear

John 14:26

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

So, when I wrote last, I left you at the top of Nevada Falls in Yosemite National Park. Well, the time came to leave that gorgeous place and come back down to the valley. Coming down from elevation has its own particular joys. You know what I mean – the descent uses different muscles than the ascent. More shredding and pain for later. We came down in half the time it took us to get to the top. 

My attitude is always different on the descent even though it shows you what muscles you haven’t taken care of lately. This descent was no different, my friends, except it showed me a sign indicating that I have not been aware of the Holy Spirit within me of late. I walked right past it on the ascent. 

You, hopefully, listened to what the Holy Spirit offers to our lives in the song above as well as the God lovingly prepared for our weaknesses and sent a very part of himself to live within us and guide us. It is said in the scriptures that this is so. Do we always remember that when we are lonely and alone? God, himself, resides in each of us always. 

Think how much stronger we would be if we exercised our access to the Holy Spirit through attention, awareness, prayer and song. Here I was exercising my physical body but am I really committing to exercising the spiritual body within me? 

Well, God let’s you know and as we were flying down that mountain, imagine my surprise to cruise around a switchback only to be presented with what I can only call a sign of the Holy Spirit in that place. It stopped me in my tracks as the kids raced on down the path. I said to myself, can this truly be? Is there really the image of a dove on the end of this sawed off log sticking out over the trail. Was I dehydrated? I took a long draw of water from my Camelbak and looked again just to be sure. 

It was still there, plain as day to me. And I could feel my heart filling with joy as I stood and stared, checked out all the angles and concluded that if I prayed all the way up the mountain, It was only right to pray on the way down as well! This was a prayer of praise right in the midst of God’s creation to God for all the ways he works with and for us to show us the way. 

He downright stopped me on that day – and sometimes that’s exactly what you have to do to me to get me to actually focus. You in that group with me? Well, I was stopped all right. I could still here chatter from the kids on the trail below but it was background noise. I knew they were still there but what I really knew in my heart was that God was present and the Holy Spirit was too right in front of my eyes. Never is there a moment in all we do, good or bad, that we are not covered by God’s living presence. 

Search out the Holy Spirit within you, practice connecting with it and your soul will be flooded and you will find the guidance God intended you to never be without as you do your days. It’s delicious in a way that feeds, safe with an edge of risk, inspiring with an intent toward action feeling that comes from within. 

Never underestimate the Holy Spirit! I realized this again in that moment. It is a comforter but it is also so very powerful that it may call us to action in a way that frightens us. I encourage myself and you to rise to meet it. 

We are meant to rise as the poet Maya Angelou gave strong voice to in her famous poem, Still I Rise. I note she wrote from a perspective of knowing the persecution of slavery in her family  (the grandmother who raised her began life as a slave) and as a civil rights activist. 

The beauty of poetry, even if you understand the author’s real intent, which I often don’t as poetry is one of my challenges in literature, you can overlap your own interpretation upon the author’s. Rereading a poem throughout the decades of your life, you may have many different interpretations to interweave and I think that is one of the magnificent things about the genre when I am brave enough to delve into its rich holdings. 

So, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove in flight as it hung suspended in air on the end of that log on the Nevada Falls trail surged many thoughts into my brain for pondering. Furthermore, I walked on down the trail knowing anew I will rise with the Holy Spirit in faith and pray for boldness to take it out with me everyday into our world. As we should. Take heart, let the Spirit fill you and rise. 

~Shauna Weil

A devotion provided by the Devotion Ministry of Goodrich UMC 

     

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

I have been to the mountains. Let me tell you the story. 

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.”   – John Muir, The Yosemite, 1912.

Psalm 90:1-2

Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place[a]

    in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth,

    or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world,

    from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.

I have been to the mountains – Yosemite to be exact. John Muir, a naturalist, environmental philosopher and wilderness preservationist, was there before me and God wandered his creation, knowing all its forms present and to be, long before either of us. The three of us, in our time, looked and said, “It is good.” I add God is so good and John Muir captures the essence of nature so eloquently and what is noted as Moses prayer in Psalm 90 rocks out God’s omnipresence in the first two verses. My family has rested on this in hope, grief and joy in the days of our lives. 

Today we start a series of Yosemite reflections. Yes, my breath was taken away by the steepness of a pathway to a 2400 foot increase in elevation to reach the top of a beautiful cliff face waterfall, taken away even walking after that first hike, but taken away also by the presence of God everywhere, everywhere. And yes, taken away by the time spent with two of my children Drew and Steph as well as the gracious and kind presence of Drew’s girlfriend Joanna. (at times I thought she was the only one with a kind soul while we were engaged in hiking mode, I’m kinda jking )

While in Yosemite, we got to see one of the famous guards of the Yosemite valley – Half Dome. Below is the Yosemite non-denominational church on the valley floor. Beautiful! A special trip through history to climb the steps to the doors of the church and think of the people who have gathered in that building for over 150 years. Even in Yosemite where the space is grand beyond comprehension and the people seemed few and far between in December, there are Christians who faithfully gather to praise and serve God. 9:30 a.m. service every Sunday. 

To me, this church so placed is bedrock Yosemite – a strong foundation in God to be taken in by our eyes and breathed into our lungs which is enough to fill our souls. The strong rock foundations are ever near in this park as they surround you as you stand in the valley. 

You can’t escape it – the rock is either bare for you to see or just barely covered by hearty plants and moss that find their purchase and cling and grow with tenacity. We too can grow in those perhaps harsh conditions. We can! But for today, use that mind’s eye of yours to picture yourself walking in this place of such strength, a peaceful haven for you and your faith. If you have been to Yosemite, I hope you’re already there. 

In my mind, God laid His strength and everlasting presence bare in Yosemite to encourage us to walk on with purpose. Yes, maybe gasping for air and hurting with each micro-step but resilient and putting all our hope in the peace of God nevertheless. 

Our first hike wasn’t so bad, was it? I invite you to join me when we next set out to meet God in Yosemite. 

~Shauna Weil

A devotion provided by the Devotion Ministry of Goodrich UMC. 

The idea of God blessings has been running through my mind lately. We see them occasionally, don’t we? I suspect they are much more plentiful than we realize – many that we miss. We often talk of God’s silence as we search for an answer. Could it be we just don’t use our God given senses? For our God loves us as his children, richly, generously and hopefully. Why hopefully? I think he hopes we will see his many blessings so we always know how close he really is to us. Consider the acrostic poem below. 

God’s Blessings

G ardener grafting new life endlessly

O ften overlooked daily

D addy doting on His daughters and sons

S urely sent for you

B eloved, believe in my boundless love for you

L earn to linger patiently

E verywhere if we are but aware

S ometimes so simple 

S avor such gifts from our Savior

I n our hearts held holy

G enuinely gravitate toward God

S nuggle; stay till the cows come home (forever)

Keep your eyes and heart open….

~Shauna Weil