When life and death collide...and you come out alive.
There is nothing like being in the center of God's will and having that place be the safest and most dangerous place in the world. Lightning, thunder, and snakes abounded, yet I hadn't felt so close to God in a long time. Maybe being close to death has something to do with it, but first, let me explain:
Sunday afternoon at about 5 o'clock found me and my friends, Holly, Peter, and Jared, hiking around the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. We were celebrating Holly's birthday with an adventure and so far, it had been a good one. I'd almost run into a what I think was a black rat snake twisting it's way up a tree (it was about 3 1/2-4 feet long), a bird had almost flown into Jared's face, and we'd passed a questionable wedding reception (that's another blog post in and of itself). We'd received a text warning us about the upcoming severe thunder storms that were headed for Tioga and were advised to take shelter. We, however, were roughly close to half way on the trail so to head back wouldn't have made much of a difference, and we weren't really worried about it anyway. Even if we did worry about it, it wasn't like there was much we could do about it. Besides, we were having lots of fun and who wanted to spoil it with worrying about a little thunder storm?
Before leaving for the hike, I'd assured my Mom, sister, and a friend that, though we were going to hike regardless of any rain that came along, we would certainly not hike if it started thundering and lightning. When we arrived to the park it was humid from the morning showers and a little bit of sun glared through the clouds, but there wasn't any thunder or lightning... Who could ask for better weather?
We came out of the trail and upon the road that we were pretty sure led to where our car was parked. Granted, we were just "pretty sure" we were going the right way since the map was inside of the car.
The car whose gas tank was on empty.
We aren't the type of group to quickly despair though, so we continued along the road as jolly as ever.
It was a little while after passing the aforementioned wedding party that the storm broke out. I believe that "storm" is a little, well... let's just say that it doesn't give justice to the monsoon that occurred upon us. It was a deluge. Torrential rain. Raining cats and dogs. The very tilting of Heaven's water skins by God (Job 38:37). Look up "storm" in the thesaurus if you're interested in any other ways to describe the squall we went through.
Now, rain is amazing enough in and of itself, but adding the elements of lightning and thunder completely redefined my understanding the of word, "epic". Holly and I both agreed that when we said it was "awesome", we really meant that it was awesome. God is awesome and He was there, otherwise, we would not be alive. Rain came down so fast that we couldn't' see (though it wasn't fast enough to keep me from seeing the lightning that flashed right above our heads) and it came down so hard that we couldn't hear one another (yet again, not loud enough to keep me from hearing the clamorous thunder that proceeded from the lightning). The water poured into my mouth faster than I could spit it out, we ran faster and faster, trying to find the car, hoping that we were on the right road. All the while I had a song stuck in my head, it was "Beat of Her Heart" by Gungor and the part I had stuck in my head went like this,
So we ran and we evaded another snake that was crossing the road. We ran, and we dashed past trees that were swaying at 45º angles. It was as if we were in the very throne room of God. As we ran I thought a few things to myself. First I thought that it is wonderful to know that God controls each lightning bolt and He is completely aware of our presence in the forest.
As small and tiny as we are, He was watching us as He cast the lightning above and beside us. I knew that, if we were to die, we would be in Heaven, yet I also felt immensely safe knowing that He had us right where we were for a reason. Had we not hung out during lunch for so long before leaving, or had someone not missed the exit that we were supposed to take (I'm not saying that it wasn't me), or had we not stopped to eat dinner and take photos for so long, we could have quite probably finished the hike before the storm started. Yet all those things occurred for a reason.
God knew that we would be running for our lives in the rain on the West Rim trail. He knew we'd take that trail and not another, that we'd be in a clearing on the road, vulnerable to all wandering bolts of lightning, and He knew that we would not find our car.
As we approached a "y" in the road, the rain subsided to a drizzle and the cold set in. We found a map that was extremely helpful (insert sarcasm), because you know, everyone is able to know exactly where to go when they don't know where they are in relation to the map! (There was no existence of the handy dandy, "You are here" marker that enabled us to know where we were).
It seemed like ages that we were trying to pinpoint our location on the map and after a few of those ages Holly and I gave up and huddled together to pray while Jared and Peter tried to figure it out.
There were two suggestions: go back the way we came, or make a random guess.
But apparently for Jared there was a third suggestion, and that one was to actually figure out the right direction to go.
The wisdom of God hit Jared like a lightning bolt and somehow he figured did it. It had something to do with deducting the only possible choice by eliminating the improbable ones...I'm not exactly sure, but all I know is that it was brilliant and after I'd lost hope of making anything but a random guess, we ended up going the right direction. We had to start jogging because I was getting very cold rather quickly and the rain started up again. Despite being fairly certain that we were going in the right direction, we resigned ourselves to having to walk a long ways to find the car. Meanwhile, a black pickup comes up behind us and stops. They lowered the windows and asked,
"Are you guys out walking for fun or is your car out of gas?"
We replied we were trying to get back to our car and they of course offered a ride.
Now, every pre-k homeschooler knows that there are two things you don't do:
1) Don't talk to strangers.
2) Don't accept rides from strangers.
But at this point, it seemed like it might be the best decision. Why? Because, if it was the case that we were on the wrong road, we'd end up walking a long time only to be even farther away from the car, and even if it was the right road, it still might be a good distance away. So we accepted the ride, declined our 4th invitation to drink and made our way in the back of a stranger's pickup. After a while, we saw the most welcoming sight of the day: Jared's car. We were on the right road after all!
We hopped off the truck and thanked the drivers. As we dried ourselves off with the towels that we had brought along for swimming, I at least, tried to get my mind around everything that had just happened. It was beyond expression, and this blog post is only a glimpse of the majesty of that storm, the very terror of the tempest we were in. Yet as I said before I will repeat, being in the center of God's will is majestically terrifying because it is often the most perilous place to be (from the world's point of view (and our parents for that matter)), yet it remains the most safe and secure haven of all. I would rather be in the eye of a storm with God, than in a comfortable and "safe" routine without Him.
And the fact of the matter is that every day we are colliding with death. It doesn't matter if you never even step outside your front door, you are still dependent on God for your life. Death is all around us, and living in the realization that you're still alive today is humbling and awesome because it makes you live fully in the trust that God has you here for a purpose.
That purpose, in case you don't know, is to glorify Him.
Come life, come death, come rain, He is orchestrating it all.
The best thing you can do is to surrender your life to Him so that you may find your heartbeat in the act of giving it away.
Each pound against your cage of ribs is to declare His Name, and your dependency on Him. Living is most full when you are aware of death and your impossibility of controlling it, and then realizing that the the most loving God Who created the universe IS in control of it. As I said, it's very humbling.
I opened up my backpack to survey the soaking contents. My Bible was drenched, yet still reliable. In it I read Job 38:34-35, "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, 'Here we are'?"
No, I can't. But God can, and that's why it was so awesome: God did. He was directing each bolt and foot step and He was saying, "Here I am, in the very center of the storm where you feel the most out of control, I am there".
To conclude the story of perhaps the craziest day of my life thus far, I will say that we made it out of the park, the sun came out and set in brilliantly blazing colors, mist surrounded the hills I've missed since moving to New York, and we made it to a gas station before the tank ran out. And that, my friends, is what homeschooled teenagers do for fun.
Before leaving for the hike, I'd assured my Mom, sister, and a friend that, though we were going to hike regardless of any rain that came along, we would certainly not hike if it started thundering and lightning. When we arrived to the park it was humid from the morning showers and a little bit of sun glared through the clouds, but there wasn't any thunder or lightning... Who could ask for better weather?
We came out of the trail and upon the road that we were pretty sure led to where our car was parked. Granted, we were just "pretty sure" we were going the right way since the map was inside of the car.
The car whose gas tank was on empty.
We aren't the type of group to quickly despair though, so we continued along the road as jolly as ever.
It was a little while after passing the aforementioned wedding party that the storm broke out. I believe that "storm" is a little, well... let's just say that it doesn't give justice to the monsoon that occurred upon us. It was a deluge. Torrential rain. Raining cats and dogs. The very tilting of Heaven's water skins by God (Job 38:37). Look up "storm" in the thesaurus if you're interested in any other ways to describe the squall we went through.
Now, rain is amazing enough in and of itself, but adding the elements of lightning and thunder completely redefined my understanding the of word, "epic". Holly and I both agreed that when we said it was "awesome", we really meant that it was awesome. God is awesome and He was there, otherwise, we would not be alive. Rain came down so fast that we couldn't' see (though it wasn't fast enough to keep me from seeing the lightning that flashed right above our heads) and it came down so hard that we couldn't hear one another (yet again, not loud enough to keep me from hearing the clamorous thunder that proceeded from the lightning). The water poured into my mouth faster than I could spit it out, we ran faster and faster, trying to find the car, hoping that we were on the right road. All the while I had a song stuck in my head, it was "Beat of Her Heart" by Gungor and the part I had stuck in my head went like this,
"So we ran, oh we ran, to the dawning light,
Oh we ran for our love and our lives."
So we ran and we evaded another snake that was crossing the road. We ran, and we dashed past trees that were swaying at 45º angles. It was as if we were in the very throne room of God. As we ran I thought a few things to myself. First I thought that it is wonderful to know that God controls each lightning bolt and He is completely aware of our presence in the forest.As small and tiny as we are, He was watching us as He cast the lightning above and beside us. I knew that, if we were to die, we would be in Heaven, yet I also felt immensely safe knowing that He had us right where we were for a reason. Had we not hung out during lunch for so long before leaving, or had someone not missed the exit that we were supposed to take (I'm not saying that it wasn't me), or had we not stopped to eat dinner and take photos for so long, we could have quite probably finished the hike before the storm started. Yet all those things occurred for a reason.
God knew that we would be running for our lives in the rain on the West Rim trail. He knew we'd take that trail and not another, that we'd be in a clearing on the road, vulnerable to all wandering bolts of lightning, and He knew that we would not find our car.
As we approached a "y" in the road, the rain subsided to a drizzle and the cold set in. We found a map that was extremely helpful (insert sarcasm), because you know, everyone is able to know exactly where to go when they don't know where they are in relation to the map! (There was no existence of the handy dandy, "You are here" marker that enabled us to know where we were).
It seemed like ages that we were trying to pinpoint our location on the map and after a few of those ages Holly and I gave up and huddled together to pray while Jared and Peter tried to figure it out.
There were two suggestions: go back the way we came, or make a random guess.
But apparently for Jared there was a third suggestion, and that one was to actually figure out the right direction to go.
The wisdom of God hit Jared like a lightning bolt and somehow he figured did it. It had something to do with deducting the only possible choice by eliminating the improbable ones...I'm not exactly sure, but all I know is that it was brilliant and after I'd lost hope of making anything but a random guess, we ended up going the right direction. We had to start jogging because I was getting very cold rather quickly and the rain started up again. Despite being fairly certain that we were going in the right direction, we resigned ourselves to having to walk a long ways to find the car. Meanwhile, a black pickup comes up behind us and stops. They lowered the windows and asked,
"Are you guys out walking for fun or is your car out of gas?"
We replied we were trying to get back to our car and they of course offered a ride.
Now, every pre-k homeschooler knows that there are two things you don't do:
1) Don't talk to strangers.
2) Don't accept rides from strangers.
But at this point, it seemed like it might be the best decision. Why? Because, if it was the case that we were on the wrong road, we'd end up walking a long time only to be even farther away from the car, and even if it was the right road, it still might be a good distance away. So we accepted the ride, declined our 4th invitation to drink and made our way in the back of a stranger's pickup. After a while, we saw the most welcoming sight of the day: Jared's car. We were on the right road after all!
We hopped off the truck and thanked the drivers. As we dried ourselves off with the towels that we had brought along for swimming, I at least, tried to get my mind around everything that had just happened. It was beyond expression, and this blog post is only a glimpse of the majesty of that storm, the very terror of the tempest we were in. Yet as I said before I will repeat, being in the center of God's will is majestically terrifying because it is often the most perilous place to be (from the world's point of view (and our parents for that matter)), yet it remains the most safe and secure haven of all. I would rather be in the eye of a storm with God, than in a comfortable and "safe" routine without Him.
And the fact of the matter is that every day we are colliding with death. It doesn't matter if you never even step outside your front door, you are still dependent on God for your life. Death is all around us, and living in the realization that you're still alive today is humbling and awesome because it makes you live fully in the trust that God has you here for a purpose.
That purpose, in case you don't know, is to glorify Him.
Come life, come death, come rain, He is orchestrating it all.
The best thing you can do is to surrender your life to Him so that you may find your heartbeat in the act of giving it away.
Each pound against your cage of ribs is to declare His Name, and your dependency on Him. Living is most full when you are aware of death and your impossibility of controlling it, and then realizing that the the most loving God Who created the universe IS in control of it. As I said, it's very humbling.
I opened up my backpack to survey the soaking contents. My Bible was drenched, yet still reliable. In it I read Job 38:34-35, "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, 'Here we are'?"
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