Conquering Mountains
Yesterday, I set out for an hour (ish) run/hike. During this time, I have started using it as a devotion/reflection/listening time. It is only me and my creator and three of my favourite men: Adrian Rogers, John MacArthur, and Charles Stanley. Their sites offer podcasts to download to a storage device i.e. Microsoft Zune for listening later and are updated daily with software. I write this story for several reasons. One is that we all have need to have time each day set aside with Christ, not just five minutes but time that is qualitative. Taking it even further, we should not limit this time as we should live a day constantly in prayer. There is no doubt that I am not there as I am sure most are not.
As I said, yesterday I set out for certain short amount of time but the time ended clocking 4 hours and 42 minutes. Let me describe the terrain, mountainous. After two hours of mixed running and hiking, I began to wander when this trail was going to end. I purposely took what I thought would be the longer trail and assumed, just as every other trail I had been on, that it would bring me to where I started. When I saw the intersection of two roads through the woods, I knew I had troubles. I did not recognise the roads. Lost? This depends on which definition you are using. According to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, lost is defined as “unable to find one's way.” In this case, I could find my way, but the problem was that it meant backtracking (remember the two hours.). In another definition they say, “beyond reach, communication, or influence”. In this case, I was described perfectly. My cell phone had no service so I could not call anyone and was left with the safest thing to do in this situation, do not assume. Assumption based on feelings can cause your situation to get worse. In this case, two hours more of travel would be preferred to the possibility of risking real lostness.
This particular day, I had only eaten two biscuits and they had expired. My muscle were already sore because I had recently started running cross-country and the going up and down was not helping. The funny thing was is that though I knew how to get out but part of me did not want to call someone so that I could find the easiest way out. Why? Because, it would be said that I was lost. I was not lost in the normal sense of being unable to find my way. Otherwise, I would not be writing now. However, I was lost in the sense that I was beyond communication, reach, and influence of any outside person. As Christians, we will never be lost in the sense of not finding our way, because we have the ultimate source of Light. When we follow Christ, we will be led. We do, however, tend sometimes to become beyond reach, influence, or communication. This happens when sin fills our life and we lose communication with God and others. Our lostness will never again be equal with that of someone who does not know Jesus as saviour. Sometimes we allow ourselves to be like Laodiceans of Revelation who are lukewarm or like the church at Ephesus who forgot their first love.
Then again, maybe God has other plans for you. We give so little while He gave and continually gives so much. My plan was for about an hour long time in the mountains but was multiplied fourfold. Was it easy? No. Would I do it again? Yes. During my journey back, I remember a new cut road and thought to myself, “I know this road leads to where I need to be.” I had assumes that it was the current road and that it would cut some time of my travel, as it probably did. I walked down the middle of this muddy road for a while and then got off of the road and walked through the woods. I finally come to the path that I had crossed earlier. I was correct. Guess what. I crossed the road and got to the other side to see that the path was leading to where I had just come. I was on the other side of the road and the whole time the trail I needed was on the other side. I could have saved probably a little over half a mile. So yet I learned again I had backtracked. One other time, I looked at this mountain and I knew that the other side was where I needed to be. So, I climbed the mountain and went partially down the other side. I could not see the trail but I was certain it was there but if I were wrong, it was going to pull away a lot of energy that I needed. So, I turned around. When I got back to the trail, I learned that I had to climb the mountain again. Needless to say, when I finally saw the familiar gravel road, a sense of relief had come. I only had about 10-15 minutes more to walk. When it was all said and done though there was a great sense of pride and accomplishment with humility right smack in the middle, on top, and under it. The funny thing was that yesterday I had decided to download some extra sermons. Little did I know that I was going to listen to all of them plus some. My day was planned. I was going to come back and do some other things that needed to be done, but instead I wandered around a mountain spending my time with more value than I would had intended. The things I learned and the things I was reminded are things that shape who I am and who I will become. Our personal time with Christ is more important than an agenda.