We took our kids for a walk last week up the back of cross and towards Crook Peak ... it’s a wonderful 360 view, and steep is how I like it (fortunately my kids have now realised that when mummy has a resolve to climb up … well, there’s no point complaining)… anyway a tube of smarties was handed out this time before the steep bit so complaints were forgotten and .. well those 'E' numbers do wonders for little legs on a walk.
The view was spectacular, I love hills and the few mountains I have had the privilege to be near have always brought me perspective, somehow when I’m on them, it just simply feels like God surrounds me. We all have our special places of connection with our Holy Father.
Anyway, this time we had Grant accompanying us (unfortunately we hadn’t got enough tubes of Smarties for him, so his legs were not motoring quite so fast!). Well on this walk, as beautiful as it is, it does enable you to see the end goal, which for Grant (with his current ankle injury) seemed a long way. He disguised his concerns about the length of the walk, claiming ‘it’s too far, the kids will never make it’ …. I marched on ... ‘what’s that Grant? I can’t hear you’ ... ‘the wind seems to be taking your words’!!!!
A good while later we stood on the top of Crooks Peak. The wind was so strong that it felt like if there was one more blast, it would push you over the edge ... the reaction of my kids was not to crouch down but to stand excitedly with arms stretched high … almost begging the wind to carry them off into the atmosphere!
There is something exhilarating about the wind (only when it's minus the rain though!), as I stood there I was reminded of God’s strength. It was as if I could almost hear him saying, "Feel this, feel my power, feel the force of my nature, all around you. I have created beauty, for you, lift your eyes up from your present internal thoughts and look out into all that I have for you; know that I am God. Know that I have the power and complete control of all things."
Today, regardless of the sunshine circumstances, or the misty fog circumstances, or the gloom of the night circumstances .. remember that God is bigger, God can and will move mountains, claim this season as yours even if it’s not your desired one. If you claim it and give it to God to do what he will with it, only good can come from it.
So often we blame God for not showing up well perhaps right now he is the storm.
All he wants you to do is throw your hands out, open your heart, posture yourself to accept his ways and accept that he is almightier than anything you could ever, ever think of.
At the end of the walk I also pointed out to my husband ‘see …you can go a lot further than you think … and with God there is nothing but truth in that!
So today go further!
Isaiah 40 v 28-31
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.