Two weeks ago i went on a wilderness trip. i spent from Monday to Sunday on the mountains of north carolina. i hiked fifty miles that week through rain, snow, wind and fog. To explain the hardship of it would be useless to you, its like every war story - it was hard. but along the trail i learned things, i saw things and i experienced things i feel are worth mulling over again. things i will remember long after the blisters on my feet are gone.
The Appalachian trail is marked in two ways, 1. a small skinny slightly beaten trail on the ground and 2. painted white lines on the trees ever 50-100 feet. when the trail fades you rely whole heartily on those white lines to get you to your destination.
day four on the trail our group had 7 miles up hill and it was a beautiful day - it was good Friday. we were in about 4 miles when we came across a confusing section on the trail, a tree had fallen and the trail was indistinguishable. and to our surprise there were no white lines anywhere within view.
some friendly hiker that morning had come to this spot gone ahead and then left a little note on a log that said "go around tree to the left and up hill on the right". we did exactly as it said.
does this strike you as a little funny. it hit me in the moments following that incident that we never once questioned the white lines on the trees. we followed them with assured hope that they would guide us. we never doubted them. not once did i come to a white line on a tree and say no i think that way is better. as i point down the mountain the opposite direction.
I will so willingly follow man made lines on trees in the wilderness where my life is at stake without question, yet i doubt and question God with every step he leads me.
Why do I insist on telling the creator of the universe that my way is better than his? What a humbling moment as i sat in the woods facing that white stripe.
If you want to take that analogy one step farther I didn't even need to know where the next five white lines were only one and i was content and happy. i was secure with one stripe. But with God i have to see the whole picture to trust one step?
at the very end of our trip we were coming out of the woods, i could see the vans parked below us on the highway drop off / pick up spot. The trail was moving towards them and i wanted to leap for joy at the sight of my rescuers. but then the trail turned and we were walking away from them. a half mile away until it finally turned back to the vans again.
Sometimes God gives us a glimpse and we feel as if we arrived, but really we are no nearer to completion than when we are a half mile deep in the woods. I haven't arrived until i am near in proximity as well as being (C.S Lewis uses those terms).
I trust the white lines why can't i trust God?
