Over this past week our squad got the opportunity to hike up a Guatemalan volcano. It is called Pacaya. We have spent the past five days in Antigua, Guatemala debriefing with our squad about the past month in Mexico and preparing for the month ahead. Antigua is a very beautiful and cultural town in Central America. There is always something going on or something to do here. The cobblestone streets and 17th century buildings make you believe your in Europe. As you wander down the skinny sidewalks, you overhear conversations of passer byers and each time you hear a different accent. People are here from all over the world, doing business, vacationing, going to Spanish language school, or trying to start a new life. And it is a great place to do all of those things. Antigua resides a little over 5000 feet above sea level and as you look around, you find that three giant volcanoes are surrounding you rising up into the sky to over 13,000 feet. It is a very impressive sight.
Once we arrived I was researching and hoping for an opportunity to hike up one of these spectacular volcanoes. On Saturday the 26th we got the chance. We all met at a coffee shop at 7:30am and took an hour and a half bus ride up and over the mountains to another nearby volcano, Pacaya. This volcano isn’t nearly as high as the three surrounding Antigua, but it is a lot more active.
We started our hike at about 6000 feet and didn’t stop ascending until we reached the point where the hardened volcanic rock and lava met the treeline. From that point on we had to move light and fast over the hardened lava. The summit of the volcano was stuck in a cloud most of the day so it was difficult to see very far. The brittle and burnt earth below our feet would crack and crumble with each step. We had to be very careful with the placement of our shoes.
If this volcano happened to be in the United States, we probably wouldn’t be allowed to walk where we were. The Pacaya Volcano is very active and as we scrambled over the rock we would find ourelves jumping over the heat vents and open cracks that went down into the lava tubes. There were some places where I thought all my leg hair was going to be immediately singed off from the heat. I could smell some of the rubber on peoples shoes beginning to melt and be re-molded with each step.
You could glance a foot or two into the cracks and see the red hot magna and lava bubbiling and just waiting for an opportunity to explode into the cool, misty air. However, we came prepared. We brought two bags of jumbo marshmalllows up the volcano to roast by the heat of the earth. It was a great experience. There was so much heat coming out of the dry and scorched earth that you could hold your stick with marshmallows two feet away from the lava and they would immediately ignite. And that is how a Christian should be like a volcano.
We all have been given the most powerful Spirit to dwell inside of us. This is the same Holy Spirit that Jesus had in him as he walked the earth. It is with this Spirit that we can use to do great things and perform spectacular miracles. We just need to stay focused and dicsliplined so that we can tap into and access more of the Spirit inside of us each and every day. God wants us to use the Spirit to its full potential. The Word of God says that we can do impossible and amazing things with the Holy Spirit inside of us.
Therefore, we need to focus on the Spirit inside of us and we need to grow ourselves each day in our relationship with the Lord. We need to go through trials to make our spiritual strength stronger. We need to continuously focus and call upon the Lord for strength, courage, and faith. We need to seek and ask the Lord to keep feeding the fire inside of us. We should be a giant burning flame and a light to the world as Christians, not a small, faint glow. We are filled with the presence of the Lord, so lets act like it and let the world see what a true Christian is like.
So how should a Christian be like a volcano? We are filled with the Holy Spirit, something more incredible than anyone can ever imagine. Most of us haven’t even accessed or called upon but a fraction of the unbelievable abilities of the Holy Spirit within us. We should strive so that the Holy Spirit is like lava inside of us. So that when we are walking down the street, there is so much heat, light, and fire around us being emitted by the Holy Spirit within us that we catch people on fire without even touching them. We need to be a light to the world and we need to shine and make them wonder what we’ve got.
