I have spent the first week of the New Year in the mountains of Colorado. The last time I was here, I was experiencing one of the hardest weeks of my life.
Younglife has a camp called Wilderness where you are thrown into the mountains for 6 days with no phone, no concept of time, and a huge backpack carrying your supplies. I decided to go because I wanted to test myself to make sure that World Race was for me, since I would be living out of a pack and have to eat what was given to me (I’m a really picky eater). Now that I’m back in the mountains, I am reminded of the lesson that the Lord taught me on the trail.
Obedience.
Wilderness taught me to mentally shut down and just. keep. moving. While we hiked from campsite to campsite, I had a lyric stuck in my head from the song “So Will I”. Every step this lyric was on repeat, flowing through my brain and adding strength to each step.
“If the rocks cry out in silence so will I”
I had hours each day to think about this statement. It hit my heart and opened my eyes to my surroundings. If the rocks cry out in silence so will I. The trees and the wind and the rain and the dirt know the Father. They know His goodness probably more than humans do. They understand His reasons and His rhythms and His ways. They praise Him, even if its silent or still. They know what it means to be truly obedient to God in a way that we don’t understand.
I shared this lyric with one of the girls I was on this trip with and she immediately grabbed her bible and read me Job 12: 7-9
“But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. Or speak to the earth, and it will instruct you; let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?”
In the mountains, it was so easy for me to be obedient, kind, and to use Jesus to be encouraging. But since I have been back in Dallas, I am struggling to follow the Lord’s day to day instructions, it seems like its harder than ever before. I catch myself being mean and scared to share my faith. I feel all this pressure to feel closer than ever to the Lord in this time of preparation, but I don’t. He is steady, but I am moving closer and farther to Him everyday. I need to take advice from the earth and be still in my faith, be honest, and most importantly, be obedient.
