I went on an adventure this weekend.

I went on an adventure this weekend. I really did! See?

My friend and I went on this adventure this weekend together. We had decided that we needed to just get out. (And we also needed pictures for a photography assignment but whatever, adventure is adventure.) So we packed up our gear, and headed out. We drove up into the mountains and I decided to go the back way. What we found was incredible.

We first found ourselves in the foothills. We stopped and snapped some pictures.

We stood in these plains looking at the expanse of mountains that lay before us. I thought to myself: “This is like life. I stand here looking at all that I have before me, and sometimes, it feels like I am never going to make it there, and when I do, how am I ever going to get over those mountains?”

We got back into the car and continued our adventure into the mountains. We turned off onto a road that was destroyed in the flood a couple years ago. We pulled over on the side of the road, got out, and decided to climb down into the river bed a little bit (don’t worry, our lives were not too much at risk here.)

It was incredible to think that a few short years ago, this river was raging. We sat there on these rocks, and felt the cold river air breathe on our necks. It was cold enough that there was ice lining the rocks in the river. I thought to myself that this is how I felt at the moment. Like I was standing on some rocks with a river beneath me staring up at mountain. As far as I could see. With not much to hold onto to get over this mountain. I felt fear creep up telling me that there was no way I could ever make it out of high school and then how I had no real idea of how I was going to fundraise all $13,805 to go on the World Race. And then every worry I have had began to drown me. 

 I heard God whisper to me in that moment “Breathe Mady. Take a deep breath of this crisp air, and be at peace.”

So I did. I felt my heart begin to calm and I could breathe. 

We climbed out of the river and continued along our way.

Now here is a part of this drive that I have loved since I was a little girl.

Imagine this: You have been driving in between these two huge mountains for at least 30 min now, and you can’t really see the sun because the mountains are so big they are blocking it out. Then, you come to these two HUGE switchbacks in the road. (If you don’t know what these are, they are basically where a mountain is too steep to go straight up, so the road switches directions multiple times so that the road is not so steep.) So you take these two switchbacks, and as you come around the last bend, you feel the sun appear upon your face. And you see EVERYTHING. This is what the first picture I posted was. The everything.  

We pulled over the car (because Laura wanted to take some pictures and so did I) and I sat in my car amazed. I remember that for a lot of this, all I could say was “Wow.” All I could think was of how amazing my God is. He created these things. Wow. 

I finally saw what God was trying to show me. Even if I am in between these two huge mountains that I can see now way around or out of, once God leads me out, I will finally see. And it will feel good. 

We came back down from the mountain feeling refreshed. I felt at peace. Because this… this is my God. The one who created the mountains. The one who created the plains. And the one who can calm my heart. 

 

“He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth– the LORD God Almighty is his name.” Amos 4:13