Today I chose miserable.......Wandering around Marble today with Starbuck (my lab) I chose miserable. We were on a walk with rainy skies, muddy roads and spectacular "moody mountains" with clouds above them and below them. In the middle of the walk I chose a different option than the one I had originally planned. I decided that we would go down a trail from the road and circle back to the Bob Marly (my jeep). The operative word here would be trail not road.

So we started down the trail and we were immediately in sometimes knee high vegetation and sometimes shoulder high vegetation. Did I mention rainy skies? Less than a minute into the trail, my hiking pants were soaked due to wet vegetation. My pants were a little too big and with the extra water weight, in constant threat of slipping down, not something I particularly wanted to happen. My feet got soaked, my dog got soaked.... I think you get the picture. Once at the bottom of the trail we had to walk a muddy road to get back to the Bob Marly. Almost to the said jeep, we ran into horses being loaded to go into the back country. Starbuck barks furiously at horses. Horses do not in general like dogs to bark at them. I had to drag her on a tight leash by the horses to load up and head home.

Yes, indeed I chose miserable. I could have finished my original course and avoided miserable. Then as God often does when I am on a hike, He led my heart in a spiritual application. How many times does He give me options and I choose miserable? The good news is that He often gives us options and gives us choices. Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we miss the mark just a bit. The even better news is that even when we choose miserable, He does not forsake us but woos us back to the better trail or sees us through to the place where we can load up in our jeep and go to a dry home!

"...And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:end of vs 20

Old Man of the Mountain......The flower photo that I posted called Old Man of the Mountain is my favorite yellow flower. We have a joke around here about yellow flowers. Everyone says, "Oh, it's just another yellow flower." I think this yellow flower deserves some respect! This yellow flower grows only at the alpine level which is above the tree line. It grows in a harsher climate and in rocky soil. In spite of these circumstances, it blooms and turns its head toward the sun.

I can learn a lesson from the Old Man of the Mountain. In spite of my circumstances or the conditions around me, I can turn my head toward The Son and bloom even though I am just another one of God's creation or better said because I am one of God's creation, one of His beloved!

On the trail........We hiked a portion of Avalanche Creek trail today. As usual we were confronted with God's magnificent creation everywhere we turned from the wildflowers to the open meadows and to the roaring creek itself! I feel so alive on the trail and at times everything in my heart comes close to the surface.

On our way back, in the midst of the beauty I thought about my father's memories slipping away and wondered how I could hold on to the beauty around me. I thought about brain tumors and vision and wondered how I could hold fast to the things I was seeing. And I looked up into the blue of the skies between the canopy of aspens and conifers and yelled out, fellow Christian, " to hell with Alzheimers, to hell with brain tumors!!!. This does not define the child of God! The trail led up and I attacked it and allowed the sorrow to flow out with the effort of each rock-covered climb! I began to proclaim; "every memory we hold, every experience we experience, everything that we see, they do become a part of us!!! And the Holy Spirit knows every one of them! And Jesus Christ knows every one of them! And God, the Father knows everyone of them! Nothing that is part of us is lost because the Three in One experiences our lives with us!!! And one day when we pass through the vail of
death and through Heaven's gates into the arms of God, all the memories, all the experiences and all the things we saw good or bad will be part of the journey that led us into God's arms and thus are not lost but are held tenderly until that day we are made whole again before Him!"

So dear Christian friend, we do not climb the trail of despair in vain! We do not rest beside the roaring creek in vain! We do not see the beauty all around us that becomes a part of our soul in vain! We do not stumble and fall and skin our knees to sit there! No! We get up! We go on! We finish the hike! WHY? Because dear Christian, we still believe, we still have faith! And one sweet day we will finish the "hike" and hear the words,"Well done my good and faithful servant."

Today is Pentecost Sunday. Jon preached a great sermon on having our hearts always open to being filled with the precious Holy Spirit and to know the power of living a life of repentance and faith in Jesus. He asked how many had ever been inebrieated by spirits such as beer, and he named some more, at one time or another. The congregation was honest and almost everyone raised their hand. We all laughed. Then he asked how many had ever been "inebrieated" by the Holy Spirit. It was a little quieter then. Then he led into on the day of Pentecost many thought the folks were drunk and then Peter set everyone straight with his sermon that ended with 3000 people being added to the church. He challenged us to always have our hearts open to the Holy Spirit and asked us if we were willing to join the 3000 who responded to Peter's sermon in Acts 2.
After church I returned to the parsonage in a cool refreshing mountain rain. I went out on our front porch and listened to the rain. I turned my face up to the mist that was gently blowing onto the porch feeling its wetness. I was still......I breathed in deeply the washed cleansed air.....I experienced the presence of His Holy Spirit and and the quiet peace of God that comes to a still and open heart.....My prayer is that I will stop often and lift my face to His cleansing "rain" and open my heart to His Spirit and His love.......

Sometimes we journey to places that we would not choose. I have been on hikes that had I known what it would be like, I would not have chosen it. Yet once on the hike you have to journey on to get back to "home." You have no choice but to sit down and quit or to keep moving along the trail. Life's journeys are sometimes like that as well.
Yet even on the Hikes from h## there are moments where you just have to laugh or at the very least it makes a good tale for later. And yes even on those hikes you will find places and moments of beauty that draw you into a place of peace.

So it is with life's difficult journeys, if we do not quit and sit it out but just keep moving along the trail, God will give us grace and moments of beauty that draw us into a place of peace. There will be tears and a deep pondering that is tinged with sadness that seems to want to linger. But even in those moments we have the promise that our friend and comforter, the Holy Spirit will sit with us and perhaps catch our tears as if they were precious jewels because they originate from our very souls.

Do angels wait for us as the sun sets on our earthly lives? I think they may. Do angelic choirs sing for joy as we, God's people go home? I think they may. There is peace much like the disappearing of the sun for the night as you sit by one who is meeting God. This I know, for God honored me by allowing me to be there in those final moments.......As we sang Amazing Grace very softly, did the angels listen or did they sing with us? I think they may. This I know... Jesus awaits us for He told us that He goes and prepares a place for us, that where He is we may be also. I know the Holy Spirit is all around as God's people take their final earthly breath because I felt His presence surrounding us as a friend, a child of God, breathed his last earthly breath. Do angels wait for us as the sun sets on our earthly lives?......I think they may.....

Words.......they have such power. They can change everything in just a moment.....You are not alone .........."I will be with you always." "Love one another as I have loved you." "Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you."
I sat with a friend. The doctor asked me who I was and I responded without thinking, "I am her sister." And I realized I meant it. I heard the doctor speaking words that were full of gravity and truth as he knew it. Words....they have such power. They can change everything in just a moment.
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." "Be of good cheer for I have overcome the world." "I go and prepare a place for you." "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Words....they have such power. They can change everything in just a moment.