Tuesday, September 1, 2015

We visited my favorite place in the world last night.

At least, my favorite place in the world right now. Because I plan to see a whole lot more of this gorgeous globe, and I'm sure I'll find a new favorite. But I digress...  :)

My favorite place in the world is an outcropping of rocks.

Ooh. Rocks. Fabulous, right?

It's called Dripping Rock, which is quite appropriate since the massive grey slabs of stone seem to trickle all the way down the face of the mountain. To access it, you have to hike about 15 minutes through the forest. The path is rocky and hilly, and if you're not careful, you'll twist an ankle in no time.

But right as you run out of breath and start to wonder if you missed the turn, you turn the corner and feel a rush of something I can't even explain.

The view literally takes my breath away. You can see for miles, and everywhere you look there's something beautiful...

The town that I call home, and the ones that surround it.
The twinkle of a million lights as the world goes to sleep but not the people.
The mountains off in the distance, and the ones wrapped around you.
The clouds so close you can almost touch them.
The fields and lakes and forests and hills in our beautiful valley.
The moon and stars, just starting to shine for their nightly parade.

I could spend hours up there, and when I have more time on my hands, I plan to. :) I especially enjoy the view at sunset, when everything is bathed in a soft pink and orange glow. That's when we visited last night, and we stayed up there until the sun was out of sight. Then it was time to hike back to the car.

The forest was almost pitch black, with no moonlight. I slipped on my headlamp, pointed it at the ground, and started walking.

All I could see was the step ahead. And then the next. And the next. And the next. As I carefully picked my way along the path, trying not to kill myself, I was struck by the comparison to my own "walk" through this life.

Every day of our lives, we stumble along our paths, unable to see beyond the next second. We just have to trust the Lord and take the next step...and the next, and the next. When you're a 17-year old girl in her senior year, you feel like those steps are more like a sprint; look up to catch your breath, and you'll land flat on your face. :P

There are so many unknowns ahead (college, relationships, money, family, occupation, place of living, marriage, what I'm going to eat tomorrow, I mean, seriously?!?!...), and the control freak in me absolutely HATES that. I want to look down the path, see the obstacles ahead, and make a detailed, 40-page, illustrated guide on how to best navigate around them.

Sadly, life doesn't work like that. *sigh*

But you know what? It's OK. This is what God has called us to. Leaving the future in His perfectly capable hands. Trusting Him in all our "next steps," both big and small. Following the advice of this verse, so we all remain relatively sane humans:

"Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." - Matthew 6:34

Truer words were never written. :) I forget this verse so often, but last night was a fantastic reminder.

Life gets hard, but God will always light the way.
One step at a time.

~ Riley

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