Spring Leadership Trek
I am impressed again by God’s mighty work in the lives of students…and my own. The Leadership Trek for this Spring 2002 semester took us up into the snow for four days carrying 45-pound packs and gliding on skinny cross-country skis. At 6,000 feet we stayed in Soquel Meadow Lodge for two nights then ventured out for an overnight in the snow. We skied in on two feet of ice pack covered by two inches of powder. Four days later we skied out to meet our vans…pushing our way through more than two feet of fresh powder.
To describe what went on out there in the back woods would be like trying to describe the fire, earthquake, and gentle wind that Elijah experienced on Mount Horeb. It is that passage when God asked him that haunting question “What are you doing?”
It is ten at night and I am being chased by students (rather successfully) in a game of tag in two feet of fresh snow with the full moon peeking through the clouds to light our way. The leaders of the day call out, “Are we warm yet?” With our blood pumping and our hearts pounding we stop to see the clouds swirl around the moon like a vampire movie. Our extremities are beginning to warm as we head back to the fire under trees heavy laden with the piles of billions tiny white flakes, none exactly the same, so I’m told.
Surviving the trip in the freezing cold is just one obstacle the students need to overcome on this trek. The journey inward is much deeper and complex as students begin to wrestle with attitudes and questions about purpose, direction and meaning in life.
For me too it is a time of mediation and thoughts as I ask myself, “What will my life be worth when I’m done with it? Where are you taking me God?” My Savior and Lord says, “Feed my Lambs and tend my sheep.” I selfishly ask “what about this other?” And the response is “…follow me!”
The God who asks for the last drop of blood from my body and last gram of emotion from my soul. Then being drained of all mental and physical stamina, He says, “Give Me more.”
What more can I say? “Take it. I’m yours.”
Yes, This is the God I want! No meat and potatoes status quo, oh no, I want the heave-ho! Even if it is into a stormy sea and the belly of a whale or running through thigh deep snow in a high Sierra moonlit meadow.
When I am laid bare and stripped of all my comforts I can better relate to my Christ “Who for the joy set before Him endured…”
Thank you my Author and Perfecter of faith for ministering to Your lambs in this way.
Posted: January 31, 2002