Lessons Learned the Honduran Way: Part 3

I glanced up at what had to be the 500th set of stairs.  As I gasped for air and felt my heart pounding out of my chest and in my ears, I honestly wasn't sure that I could go on.  As I stood glancing at the expanse of God's beautiful creation, every sense of wonder was drowned out by the doubt and, quite honestly, the planning of how in the world I would get out of the woods and back down the mountain when everything in me felt like giving up, quitting, and figuring out a way to just survive in the wilderness right where I was at.  Continuing to go up seemed daunting, and, even going down seemed just as daunting.  My legs were jello, I couldn't catch my breath, and with every step the doubt, the fear, and the sense of defeat grew louder and louder.  My legs screamed quit.  My stomach screamed quit.  My lungs screamed quit.  But I trudged on-- honestly not out of any sense of strength or determination, but simply because camping out in the woods of Honduras for the rest of my life didn't really seem like the most feasible plan.

What I never saw coming, however, was the fact that the Lord would use this little hike to teach me a life lesson that I will never forget.  As I stared up the 1000th set of stairs, I decided to change my strategy.  Instead of looking at the entire, daunting, steep set of stairs, I'd just look at the step in front of me.  One step at a time.  Just one step.  As I took each step, the next one became easier.  However, if I got ahead of myself and looked up to the 346 stairs that remained in the set, I felt myself becoming anxious and overwhelmed again.  It was in one of these moments taking one step at a time that the Lord reminded me of a verse that He'd quickened my heart to in Week 2 of Honduras, Psalm 77:20.

You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

If you're anything like me, you're thinking what in the world does this verse have to do with hiking in the mountains???  Everything.  When the Lord brought me to this verse in week 2, He reminded me of all that we were teaching the kids about Moses and Aaron as they led the Israelite people through the wilderness.  Moses and Aaron did not know exactly where the Promised Land would be, but they trusted God day-by-day as He led them by a pillar of cloud and pillar of fire (Ex. 13:21).  He showed them the way-- step-by-step, moment-by-moment, day-by-day, and night-by-night.  It wasn't about knowing the destination.  It was about knowing and trusting the One who was guiding them, that He is good, that He is sovereign over their every step.  They did not have to see the whole journey, and, quite honestly, the whole 40 year journey might have been a bit overwhelming-- it would have been for me.  They simply had to trust.

As I took one step at a time, the surface lesson that the Lord taught me in week 2 became an actual heartfelt reality.  I don't have to know how many stairs lie ahead or how much farther there is to walk, I simply have to trust the One who has laid out the path that He is guiding me in each and every step.  With every single step of obedience, He shines light to the next step, and step-by-step, moment-by-moment, day-by day, I draw closer and closer to the One who guides my path.

For so long I have centered my life around the next big thing (finishing college, getting married, starting a family, moving to Oxford, going to Honduras...), that I have missed out on the fact that God has been so very faithful in every single little step in the journey.  It's in the seasons of waiting that we see the character of God-- His faithfulness, His goodness, His strength, His love, His kindness, His justice, His guidance.  This journey is about so much more than any single destination or any "next big thing" coming our way.  It's about knowing Jesus, following hard after Him, taking His hand and trusting that He has provided the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, now in the beautiful form of His Word to guide us along this journey.  He has lit the path.  Now, in these seasons of waiting, it's not our job to figure out the cryptic codes of what our lives will entail.  No, it's simply our job to be obedient to take the next step-- moment-by-moment, day-by-day, night-by-night-- one step a time.