What a weekend!! My church left on a spiritual retreat Thursday and we just got back tonight. I had the opportunity to admire the beach in Sokcho as well as the beautiful view from my hotel room. We started Thursday evening with a class on spiritual resiliency. It was informative and caused a great deal of introspection into my own personal journey! We took time to discuss the definition of “resiliency” and what it means to be spiritually resilient.
Demonstrating spiritual resiliency means that when your faith has been tested, it did not break. You have to work every single day to strengthen your faith and beliefs so that when they are tested, you’ve already prepared yourself for what is to come. The concept is very similar to when you stretch out a rubber band. You have to work and ease the rubber band towards it’s maximum potential. Everyone is different, but I find that the best way to sharpen your faith is really simple.
Read your Bible. Etch it on your heart. Write it on your door.
The next day (today) we had the choice of going to the hot springs or going to hike at Mt. Seoraksan. Mt. Seoraksan is the third highest mountain peak in South Korea and was absolutely beautiful!! I was able to take the cable car up to the highest peak and admire the view. All I can say is “
“. We could see all the way out to the ocean. My parents took the short hike up the rest of the way from there (about a half mile) so they got to see the tippy top. My dad really wanted me to get a majestic mountain picture for my World Race profile pic (LOL)… but really I just wanted to see the waterfall! So my friends and I took the cable car down, then made the 2 hour roundtrip hike up to the falls. Again, wow!!! There was nothing on this mountain that wasn’t beautiful. The streams, the stones, the trees and even the random little chipmunk I almost tried to take home with me. It blows me away that anyone could see this organized chaos in nature and not recognize that a loving hand created all of it. It made me feel so small to think that my God has allowed this little girl of his to see so much in such a short time on earth. It shakes me to my core to know that come September, I’ll be seeing trees and rocks and chipmunks (or llamas… hopefully) in 5 different countries!
Who am I that the Lord of all the earth would let me see such enchanting works of art? Who am I that he would let me fellowship with fellow believers while I marvel at this creation?
He tells me who I am. He gives me a name, and says that I am his. I am just as fearfully and wonderfully made as this mountain range. All the care he put into these waterfalls was also put into me. The same beautiful thought can be said for every other man and woman that he placed on this earth. What an incredible fact!!
I’ve uploaded the pictures on facebook but I’ll add them here too!
Until next time,
Chessie
