Courage For Today

trail

He Can Guide Us Over The Mountains

Faith

I have to admit that I’m not much of an adventurer or outdoorsman ,although I do like to enjoy outdoor activities.  I like to camp and fish occasionally, especially when I was younger.  Now, it seems that I just don’t have the time or make the time to relax as much as I should.  I suppose we’re all caught up in our daily lives and the ongoing hustle and bustle.  It’s no wonder that most of us are too stressed out for our own good.

I remember many, many years ago I had the opportunity as a teenager to go with some friends of mine on a mountain climbing adventure.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking Mt. Everest here.  Just some small, North Georgia Mountains that would be plenty challenging enough for me and my friends.  We were excited because it wasn’t something we normally did a lot of—mountain climbing that is.  But, we were also nervous because we didn’t know anything about it.  My imagination went wild.  What if our ropes broke?  What if we fell off the edge of the mountain?  What if we ran into bears?  What if we got snake-bit?  What if there was an avalanche of rocks that hurt us?   What if we got separated and some of us got lost in the wilderness?  On and on and on, my thoughts ran wild to the point that I was ready to go home before we started.

Despite all the anxiety, we arrived at our location to begin our great excursion.  The good news was that we were going to have a local climber go with us; someone who knew the terrain and knew where to go and what to look out for.  Before we started the hike and climb, our guide explained how he grew up in the area and hiked the trails and mountains as a child.  He comforted us by explaining how he knew every inch of the terrain and even knew when there were changes to the landscape such as a new fallen tree, or a dammed-up stream.  By the time he was through talking, I was feeling much better.  I knew that I had nothing to fear.  There was no where we would go; no mountain that we were going to climb; and no path we were going to take in which our guide was not intimately familiar.  Even though we didn’t even know what County we were in, he knew every new path that was created.

Sure enough, we encountered a situation in which our guides expertise was a life-saving experience.  As we began climbing one small mountain after another, we encountered one mountain with a small trail that circled around the hill and slowly snaked it’s way to the top of the mountain.  What we didn’t know at the time was that at one point on the mountain, there was a 20 foot stretch of the trail in which the trail narrowed to about one foot in width. You fall off the trail and you tumble down the mountain.  Our guide was ahead of us and already had navigated this treacherous stretch.  He knew it was coming and had crossed the path many times before. He knew what to expect .  He crossed the  narrow path with ease and waited for us on the other side, ready to coach us and lead us across danger to safety.  Basically, we had to turn our backs to the mountain side and look forward, out over the long fall below, and slowly slide our way around the mountain until the path widened. Our guide would tell us where to place our feet and how not to look down, leading us every step of the way until we were all safe.  Needless to say, our guide was our best friend at that moment.

We often go through life looking at the mountains and the dangers and worrying too much about what may happen while, all the time, forgetting that our guide–Jesus–has been there before.  HE created the mountains.  Nothing catches our Lord by surprise.  HE is there to guide you and direct you every step of the way, if only you’ll focus on HIM and not the fall below.

Are you facing a huge trial or decision in your life right now?  Are you seeing only the mountains?  If so, take your focus off the mountain and place your focus in your guide.  It’s amazing how much more beautiful the scenery is when you do that.

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The Enormous Power of Forgiving and Forgetting

Forgiveness

I have to admit that forgiving others is sometimes a struggle for me, even as a Christian.  I don’t have any difficulty forgiving someone for what we might call a “minor offense” or something fairly insignificant.  However, if the offense is something that affects my life in a major way, I struggle.  In fact, if I’m being honest, I want just the opposite—-I want revenge.  I want to somehow make the other person go through all the turmoil and anger and bitterness that I’ve experienced.  I know that’s the wrong attitude but, again, I’m being honest.  I really came to a crossroads a couple of years ago when I had struggled for so long with bitterness and anger toward a particular person who caused unmentionable grief for my family and me.  Was I going to really practice my faith and honor what the Bible teaches about forgiveness, or was I going to forget this principle of the Christian Faith and act in a manner I would later regret?

The Lord reminded me one day of an event that happened on one of my many camping and hiking trips as a young person.  On this particular hiking trail, we encountered a medium sized stream that was dammed by fallen trees; rocks; and debris.  The water above the dam was slow moving and almost stagnant, even dirty looking and polluted. There didn’t appear to be any fish or much life at all.  Below this natural dam, I noticed where the stream had found a small gap and had broken through.  There, the water was clear and sparkling and rushing around rocks and around the boundaries of the banks quickly working it’s way downstream.  What a difference a few feet on the hiking trail made!!  I witnessed the same water transform itself from dirty stagnation to clean refreshment.

I was reminded that not forgiving others, no matter how great the offense, simply dams up my my own life and pollutes my Christian walk.  I become stagnant and stale; bitter and miserable; hurtful and dirty.  I discovered that by not forgiving others, I only hurt myself, not the person that I was still angry with.  As soon as I forgave this person–truly forgave them, it was as if the dam broke.  Suddenly, my Christian faith was like the water running down stream, after the dam.  It was clear and clean and beautiful again.  It was an unbelievable feeling of freedom.

Is there someone in your life that you need to forgive?  Do you need to break through the “dam” of unforgiveness in your life?  I encourage you to forgive that person; don’t stay paralyzed with bitterness.  I can promise you that there’s much better scenery downstream with a free-flowing stream, than there is stagnant in a pool of dirty water.

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Resting in the Comforting Mist

Strength

Several years ago, my best friend and I decided to drive, one Saturday, to the North Georgia Mountains to hike.  We were still young and single and had nothing really better to do on a hot Saturday afternoon, so this would be something different and exciting for us to do.  Neither of us were avid hikers or really knew what we were doing, but it sounded like something to kill some time, if nothing else.

Off we drove for about 2 hours from Atlanta to North Georgia where we arrived at one of the State Parks.  It was gorgeous.  Campgrounds; picnic tables; playgrounds; and, of course, all set in the beautiful mountains.  I can still feel the crispness of the mountain air and how refreshing it all felt after the long drive.

The Park had several hiking trails, but we decided on hiking the trail that was marked as the most extreme.  Afterall, we were young, macho guys.  We didn’t want some wimpy walking trail.  We wanted to go for the most gusto—and we did.

The first part of the trail involved walking down what seemed like a thousand steps deep into a canyon.  From there, the trail began up and around various hilltops all amazingly marked with signs of various landmarks and types of wildlife.  It was as beautiful as we had hoped, but tiring.  It seemed like we must have walked 5 miles, but the hiking trail was only marked as a couple of miles.  The fact that we not walking on a level playing field obviously made it seem longer than it did.  We were both beginning to get very tired.  Being the experienced hikers that we were, we didn’t take any water with us so our mouths and throats were as dry as a desert.  We were suddenly discovering that we weren’t as macho as we thought we were and, to make matters worse, we had to hike back.

We had been hiking alongside a medium-sized river and seeing all that water just made us thirstier.  Just when we thought we couldn’t make it much further, we saw a small waterfall up ahead where the river we were following dropped off to a lower terrain. What really caught our eyes was that there was a ledge behind the waterfall where we could climb and actually sit and rest behind the waterfall.  We debated whether to continue hiking, or try to climb behind the waterfall and rest.  That was something I had seen in movies where people hiked behind the waterfall into some mystery cave or hideout, but I had never personally seen this before.  So, off we went.  Climbing down the ledge ever so carefully until we were actually behind the waterfall.  What an awesome sight! We literally sat there quietly watching the cool water from the river above us dropping right in front of and continuing downstream below us.

It was so refreshing. Watching the awesome power of the water while, at the same time, enjoying the cool mist blowing off the waterfall sprinkling us with much needed water. Not enough to soak us too much, but just enough to revitalize us for the journey back. We probably sat there for 30 minutes just soaking up the beauty and the cooling mist. What a blessing this was on that hot day, especially to think we almost talked ourselves into continuing our hike and we would have missed this opportunity at the waterfall.

I often think of my Christian Walk and how sometimes life just seems overwhelming. It reminds me so much of that day, many years ago, hiking in the mountains.  On that day, we walked and walked; uphill and downhill looking for the end of the trail and yearning for refreshment at the same time.   Finally, we found the mist of the waterfall and we forgot about our feelings and the long journey still ahead of us.  The comfort of the mist was worth the agony of the journey.  Whenever I have those overwhelming “life moments,” it helps me to just stop and have some quiet time with the Lord and simply wonder in His mighty grace and strength.  I couldn’t tell you how many times I missed fellowship with the Lord simply because I was too busy to slow down.  Just like that day on the trail, we would have missed the refreshing mist of the waterfall had we not stopped.  The “mist” of the Lord’s love and greatness is more than I need for any situation on any day and all that I need for the long journey ahead.

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