“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands” -Isaiah 55:12
I look back at my last blog and I can’t help but laugh at myself. I’m so human. I was begging God to make Himself known to me, to show up and speak to me in a way that I could not deny was real. I stayed silent, waiting on the Lord, hoping to hear an audible voice or to visibly witness something miraculous that would provide factual evidence to appease my skeptical, over-analytical mind. I was shocked to get all of your comments and responses… I have never felt more understood, loved, and encouraged. So many of you told me that you are in, or have been in, the exact same place (you don’t know how comforting it was to realize that I’m not alone in this!).
The common denominator in all of your comments was the mention of “faith”, a word that I’ve used since kindergarten. I started chewing on that word; picking it apart and trying to figure out what it really means to me.
Meanwhile, 7 of us headed way up into the Peruvian highlands in the midst of the Andes mountains (13 hours on a bus) for the weekend. We visited a church in the small village of Musho and got to spend an afternoon with a young missionary couple in the neighboring village of Utupompa. In all honesty, it was the most beautiful place I have ever seen; no picture could do justice. Every inch of the hills were covered in green, with crystal clear streams and waterfalls in every valley. The mountain tops were hidden in a thick mist, but early on Sunday morning as we were traveling up the hillside to Utupompa, the mist cleared for a total of 45 seconds, revealing a breathtaking glimpse of a snow-covered Huascaran peak (the tallest in Peru, over 22,000 feet).
I don’t know how to explain it, but I instantly felt God, and in that instant, he started revealing things to me. I’ve been asking God to let me see something, to provide proof for me to base my faith on. But in doing that, I was contradicting the definition of it;
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” -Hebrews 11:1
I’ve been going about it all wrong! I need to be praying that the Lord strengthen my faith, not that he give me more proof. Proof is EVERYWHERE! And I shouldn’t have to see a mountain peak to be reminded of that.
The cloud of confusion that I was in last week has definitely lifted, and I feel like it’s taken a weight off of my back. I just needed to chill out, open my eyes, and look around! My mind has just been ticking lately, and the Lord is really revealing things in scripture that I had never understood before.. it’s exciting!
But that’s a whole ‘nother blog!
To be continued….
