when i behold the beauty of your many wonders and i’m captivated by your majesty oh my soul rings out a sacred hallelujah back to the source from whence it came
a three day weekend is a great chance to reset and refresh, if i do it right. i decided to spend my saturday hiking through the beautiful mountains of washington with an 8-mile hike to lake annette with my hiking group, black people hike. when you open those pretty eyes of yours and look around at the masterpiece that god created for our enjoyment, you can begin to see just how deep and how wide and how complete his love is for us. ahhhh. even as i type this post, i’m transported back to the serenity, the beauty, the magic that nature possesses.
nature is one of god’s many love letters to us. i personally feel closets to him when i am surrounded by mountains and meadows, oceans and rivers, trees and flowers, and the great variety of life that makes its home under the cover of the forest canopy. i’m often overwhelmed by the sheer abundance of life blossoming all around me as i trek up steep hills, over rocks, and across waterfalls.
people ask me how i can finish 8 mile hikes with a smile on my face. it’s because each breath feels like drinking god in and being filled with peace. i feel connected to my source and recharged. i leave the mountain side exhausted, but convinced there is nothing in this world i can’t face and conquer.
when you think about the nature of faith, and the fact that jesus taught us faith the size of mustard seeds can move mountains, it’s hard to truly picture what that looks like in real life. i’m from missouri, we’re the show me state. i like to see things. but missouri is also pretty flat so conceiving of what it means to move a mountain is limited for most of us. we don’t see mountains regularly. living in seattle, i see them every day, in every direction. man, i love this place. i thank god daily in some form or fashion for guiding me here.
my treks to the mountains have strengthened my capacity to operate in faith. climbing a mountain is no joke. and i’m not talking about summiting a mountain. that’s a whole other beast i’m not even interested in tackling. i’m just talking about hiking. it’s a mix of steady climbs, switchbacks, downward slopes, rocky terrains, felled trees, and the constant reminder that each step takes you closer to the top.
once you do actually make it to the top, you can rest and just enjoy the view – a just reward for your hard work. lake annette greeted us at the top of our mountain. even shrouded in fog, it was beautiful to behold. after resting and refueling on snacks, i did some exploring with my hiking group before heading back down the mountain.
the downward climb is also a workout. but my favorite part is noticing things i missed on the way up because i was so consumed with the effort to keep going. and when i finally make it to the bottom, i like to look back up at the mountain and remind myself that i made it to the top. it seemed hard and difficult but i made it.
living with faith is a lot like that. somethings just seem downright impossible. the amount of effort needed to accomplish it seems beyond your strength. it probably is. but as i have learned that god is ever near in nature, i know him to be ever near in every day life. and whatever mountain seems to find its way in my direct path, i have a history of climbing mountains on a regular and when i’m done, i feel refreshed, recentered, renewed, and ready to take on the next thing.
