The fog began to swirl down from the top of the mountain. I was already feeling lightheaded from the altitude and the fatigue from our climbing straight up for four hours. My Pennsylvania lungs were not used to the 9000ft in altitude they were now experiencing. Our hut rested at the top of a ridge between two peaks, seemingly no closer then it had been an hour ago when it had first come into view. Rock falls continued to be heard somewhere off to our left as we climbed the switchback path upwards. The beauty of the surrounding mountains had begun to disappear, along with my attitude towards our present adventure. I am not someone who easily quits, but if given the option at that moment, I would have taken it. My main motivation for moving forward was the very real knowledge that the fog could easily turn stormy and our path would quickly change from difficult to dangerous. A hiker further down had described the last part of our trail as “a bit sketchy” and I didn’t want to discover what he met while also dealing with snow or rain. Mostly, I was tired, tired of fighting up the mountain, tired of carry my backpack, tired of feeling lightheaded. After another hour of climbing, we finally stepped off the snow covered path and into our hut, relieved to have finally made it. My main takeaway from the from the grueling five hour trip up the mountain, I hadn’t prepared myself enough for that kind of physical hike.
“Prepare my heart Lord”, it’s a prayer I’ve probably prayed a dozen or so times over the past several months as I’ve begun to physically prepare for the World Race. I think in my mind it was the “right” prayer to pray. I mean, in theory I’d like for a prepared heart when I enter the Race next year. However, I’ve come to realize the danger in praying that prayer. When we ask God to prepare us we are inviting him to begin to work on us. Those wounds and sin issues that we’ve been content to let fester are now fair game for God to begin to gently (or perhaps firmly) prod at and bring to the surface. We are being refined and prepared for greater things, its going to be painful.
As I enter this final season before the Race, I’m constantly reminded that next year is going to be a challenging one. However, it would be foolish for me to wait until January before I invite God to do that new work in me. Next year will in all likelihood be a pressure cooker of spiritual and emotional growth. I’d rather begin to prepare my heart, mind, and spirit now for the adventure then wait and suffer through the initial shock of life on the Race. Goodness knows there’s plenty of work to be done.
Jesus, let’s do this.
