Yesterday I had the amazing opportunity to hike Volcano Pacaya, which is about 1 hour outside of where we are staying in Antigua, Guatemala. It's elevation is 8400ft and the whole hike is on volcanic rock and ash. Just a little bit different from my fav hiking in Malibu, CA. About halfway up I was fairly convinced I was going to die but as you probably figured out by now, I didn't. Phew! As we were nearing what I hoped was the top of the volcano our guide, Lionel, kept giving us a time frame of how much longer to go. Right when I was ready to pass out and roll back down Lionel yelled "tres minutos a muy beautiful, 25 a marshmellows." Spanglish translation: 3 minitues till something really beautiful, 25 till we get to roast marshmellows at the top. Score!!! Talk about instant rejuvination.
Funny how it's so easy to keep going when you know how much more you have to get through. Hiking those last 25 minutes I kept thinking how awesome it would be if that was how God worked. If when we were going through something super hard he kind of popped down from heaven with a poster board that said "2 more days!' or "this will be over next month!" How perfect would that be?! I was getting really into my idea of God working similar to my facebook newsfeed when I realized this: if I know when everything is going to happen that completely takes out the trust aspet of my relationship with Christ. I wouldn't have to rely on him to get me through because I would know when it would all be over. Where's the fun in that?! While he may not give us a play by play he definitely gives us something to hold onto – can I hear everyone shout BIBLE up in here??? My all time fav verse says, "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful." {Hebrews 10:23} To me that says that if I believe God is who he says then I absolutely believe in his faithfulness and trust him enough to have hope even when things are going crazy.
Trusting God enough to let him lead you is a scary thing, and sometimes the uphill climb is horrible and taking another step forward just doesn't seem worth it. But I promise you – reaching the top and seeing all that you have been through to get where you are now is absolutely worth it.
Last but not least, here's a little video update from team Transformation Station:
