Adventures in Hiking

I have this paticular hiking spot that provides an amazing "God-date" on several different occassions. I have always desired to go on this hike alone. The pictures below and the writing are from Thursday morning when I got to travel to my hiking spot, swim, and pray.


Faith:

We all wore tank tops and shorts that day, even the guys. We were a pesky group of college students fighting for survival in a world that told us how we lived and what we believed was old-fashion, silly, and wrong. We spent all week planning the trip, well perhaps all summer, and we spent all morning getting everybody up and ready. All seven of us would travel to the waterfall hike. We would make our way down the cliffs, take lots of goofy pictures, and when we finally reached our destination we would strip down to sport bras and cutoff shorts and jump in. It was sure to be a most memorable day, and it really was. After the swim, before we split up into the group that would go home and the group that would go on, we took a photo that will forever be eched in my memory. A photo that spoke of the laughter we shared when we jumped off rocks into the deep unknown. It was a photo that spoke of the lighthearted spirit of dancing beneath the waterfall's kisses. It also spoke of change. Friends about to be torn in different directions. Young hearts about to find eachother for life, and young spirits about to start blowing where the wind took them. Perhaps it was just a photo of all us college kids drenched in tank tops and shorts perched on a rock with smiles, water bottles, and morning made sandwhiches, but it is so important to me.

I watch daily how God changes us. The waterfall continues to pour into the river forever changing and moving it. Likewise, God continues to pour into us forever changing and moving us. God is the moving force in everything I do. God has carried me through the deepest waters, and I have been changed. Today, I sit on that rock where the picture was taken by myself and with good purpose. I smile as I recall the time I've spent here and the people I've spent it with. I smile fondly as I remember warm summer days that turned into swims or pictures of water rushing through the snow, and someday I will smile sweetly at the day that I made this hike alone just to prove that I could. God is pouring into me and with His strength, nothing is impossible. This I believe, this is truth.

Change is immediate. Perhaps, that is why I like pictures so much.

I only say this. We fill our lives with "busy" for a variety of reasons. Get away and have a moment today. Go on a date with God, with your beloved, or with a group of friends. Life is too short for boring, but way too precious for business.