Night Time Jungle Walks
The dark, cool night enveloped around me as I walked through the campus of the Jungle School in rural Guatemala. Accompanying me was my squad of fellow missionaries, all of us worn from a month of labor-intensive work, yet energized by the adventure that lay ahead. Tonight was our final night in Guatemala, and to help commemorate our time in the land of eternal spring our host offered to lead us on a night time prayer walk through the Mayan biosphere. It was a still night, with the howler monkeys that could be heard during the day now quiet, ostensibly nesting down for a good night’s sleep. The jungle air that was sweltering by day had cooled enough to allow for long sleeves, a welcomed luxury due to the local mosquitoes insatiable appetite for helpless, God-loving gringos.
With the local missionaries leading the way we walked on, past the school’s bungalow style classrooms and towards the dense jungle that lay beyond. After a few minutes the gravel path beneath our feet gave way to tall, lush grass as we entered the school’s soccer pitch. The field was hundreds of yards longer than normal as it was a repurposed airstrip, emblematic of decades past when the property was used by local drug cartels. On the other side of the oblong long field stood a single torch flickering gently in the night’s breeze. That torch signified our entrance into the jungle, and the beginning of our prayer walk.
As we crossed the field and passed into the labyrinth of tropical greenery I kept my eyes fixed on the patch of dirt directly in front of me, using the light of my phone to ensure good footing as well as to avoid any impromptu meetings with local snakes. As we walked and prayed, contemplating how cool and simultaneously ludicrous this was, my eyes momentarily shifted upwards and were immediately seized by the sight above. Through the tropical canopy of vines and palms was the brightest, most expansive night sky I had ever seen. Void of light pollution and cloud coverage the stars dazzled, their brightness only outpaced by their voluminosity.
Despite the ferocious bugs, massive spiders, and curious snakes that filled the local terrain, there was undoubtedly an ancient purity to the surrounding land. The Mayan biosphere is largely virgin jungle, a place uncorrupted and uncompromised by development. The stars also appeared different from this vantage point, as they shone down in a bright, dignified manner, attesting to their divine design and timeless nature. The immensity and beauty of God in that moment was overwhelming, so much so that I realized I had been walking for a while without once looking once where I was putting my feet.
What I realized was that since graduating college I had been walking through life in a similar fashion. Looking around me to see where I could find my best footing, while simultaneously trying to avoid snakes hiding beneath the grass. And while neither of these are bad inclinations, I too often missed out on appreciating the sheer goodness of God and his creation. My jungle experience also reminded me of a time I went mountain biking with a good friend back in Maryland. My buddy biked a lot and was pretty good, I was absolutely awful and it took my best efforts just to keep up. As we rode he explained how mountain biking is just as much about choosing a good line as it is balance, strength and endurance. The trick was to not look down at the trail immediately beneath your tires (which is what I was doing) but to trust your body to feel its way through it’s current environment, while keeping your eyes focused 5-10 yards ahead to where you want the bike to go. For someone who understands 97% of the world through how it parallels to sports, I loved this analogy. As a Christian the trail ahead, where I want to go, is Christ. Similarly, the world around me, including my job, family and friends, is the trail beneath my tires, where I want to grow in my ability to trust my character and respond naturally.
For me I’ve realized that this can be categorized into 2 major buckets, matters of practicality, and matters of purpose. From a pragmatic sense, keeping my eyes on Christ has been facilitated by spending consistent time in the Word, getting plugged into a quality Christian community, and consuming media that positively influences my perspective (although I do not foresee giving up listening to Eminem, don’t judge me). Simultaneously, it has also been a matter of reorienting the purpose behind how and why I engage in daily tasks. This includes working hard not for prideful or for compensatory reasons, but in order to honor God with my work ethic and through maximizing my abilities. Similarly, this has also meant loving others, and not solely those who make me feel comfortable, but anyone I have an opportunity to love, regardless of our spiritual, social, or political commonalities.
Viewing situations and circumstances this way definitely has felt counter-intuitive at times, which I guess is to be expected. As God’s creations we are in this world but not of this world, creating a natural conflict between what receives our attention, whether that will be concrete things of the here and now, or abstract promises that will last an eternity. While I have just begun attempting to walk through life focusing more on Christ and less on my material circumstances, I feel peace and confidence now more than ever in terms of who I am and what I have. This has ironically come in contradiction to the periods of my life where my identity and my possessions were my primary focus. I suppose sometimes it takes walking through a dark, inhospitable jungle to remind oneself that while we will always need good footing in life, it is best to seek that foundation first from God, trusting that He will make straight our paths.
