A day I will hopefully never forget!

This Sunday our service at church was one that hit me in a spot I didn't expect. The speaker was our music leader Allan Cullen, whom Aaron and I feel has a great gift of worship leader and speaker. He spoke about our cluttered lives and the need to slow down. He started off by just sitting on his stool in silence and people didn't know what to do...he'd take a deep breath and ....wait...and then wait some more. But as he spoke about our hurry and rush and busy and filled crazy lives I looked behind him and saw a picture...there's a wall size TV screen that comes up from the ground behind him that our church sometimes uses for a digital background for skits and sometimes just ambiance....but this time it was a close up of a rock with two hands clinging to it....and I thought about a day back in college when our Campus Crusade for Christ hiked Grey Rock in the Poudre canyon at around 3 am to watch the sunrise on a Saturday morning. The hike up wasn't bad at all...really just staying on the trail and enjoying the fresh morning air. Once we all made it up we sat on that cold grey rock and watched a beautiful pink,red and orange sunrise. And then...people started leaving....well this day would be different for me and two of my closest friends...for some reason we were the last people to head down the mountain, Molly, Jessica and I. It wouldn't have mattered much but as we went down we missed a marking(a kearns...or stack of rocks) Yep...on this small mountain we got lost....very lost. We stayed at the base of that mountain for a few hours walking around trying to see the top so we knew where we were...because this mountain is obvious to read...it's just one big grey rock at the top and that day, yes...oh thank only the Lord Jesus that it was completly covered with a cloud. Yep...we kept walking...and walking...and at that point in my life I needed to slow down and if I can recall each of us women had things we needed to work through. As we talked and walked we saw the Lord in so many things. I remember working through some of my personal heartbreak and coming around the corner a deer was just standing there eating...beautiful. Peaceful. Silent. Then of course came time for us to find our way back...we decided to climb back to the top and we knew we'd be able to find our way down and focus...on the trail that is! So...yeh to our joy we ended up on the sloped windward rocky side...yeh..we weren't prepared to climb but we scaled that mountain and at times I think we figured if we slipped we could be seriously injured. And we prayed a ton! I even remember it snowed or rained a bit and we freaked out because it would make the rocks even more slippery!!! Yeh we were crazy! But I got to this point where I was up above Molls and Jess and there was this spot between to rocks and I need to lift myself up by holding on to the two rocks, but there was nothing for me to step on to lift myself up...and this is where the Lord reminded me...not in an audible voice, but in His amazing way..."I have always had you in my hands, I have always been here to carry you, I have and will always guide you and protect you if you look to ME!" And then I was up...I don't know how but I was...and I helped the girls get up and when we finally got to the top of course we tried to take a picture of what we had just climbed...but only we would know how hard it was and what we learned that day...
Even more enjoyable was the fact that we'd been yelling for help off and on and as we got to the top their was this huge family of tourist taking photos...yep...didn't hear us at all!! And probably thought we were just out enjoying our hike...5 hours later!!!! We did make it down and the people we'd agreed to give a ride back found us and we went and at a ton at IHOP...but that day...what a great great great day! I love the days we are absolutley forced to stop and think on Him. To remember He's it for us. There is nothing greater than He!!! And we need absolutely nothing else. I love my life and all He's given me, but all I will ever need is Him. I rejoice in that alone. I rejoice that my husband and I feel the same way about this. Our Lord is above each other, above our family, above our work and that is AWESOME! PRAISE JESUS that HE reigns in our lives and is always with us to guide us!!!
"He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him. and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." John 1:2-5