(Linville Falls Campground Site B53, Blue Ridge Parkway)
I’m sitting here at the picnic table on this chilly morning (about 40 degrees!). I just finished a bacon & egg breakfast that was delicious. To me, a trip to the mountains that didn’t include the consumption of bacon at some point would be a complete waste of time.
I’ve come up here for a few days of rest and solitude after a grueling summer and early fall. Throughout all the chaos and busyness, I kept thinking about being up here. And now here I am. I spent the first couple of days just decompressing and de-stressing. No agenda… no goal… just rest.
And that’s not too hard to accomplish when you’re in a place as beautiful as this. Due to high winds and snow last week, many of the fall leaves have already… ummm… fallen. There are still pockets of brilliant color, though – especially when you park at a scenic overlook and look down into the valleys. The colors are a muted mixture of brown, brownish-yellow, and deep red. Linville Gorge, as seen from Wiseman’s View, is especially lovely – perhaps because the trees deep in the gorge experienced less effect from the harsh winds of last week there.
I was reading Psalm 37 yesterday. It contains many encouraging verses that embolden and drive me as I seek to passionately pursue whatever is next for me. But as I take a closer look, I notice that this psalm contains two verses that seem to contradict each other:
7 Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.
23 The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.
So here’s the contradiction – in verse 27, the Lord “directs our steps”, which means we’re walking… we’re acting… we’re going somewhere. But in verse 7, David tells us to “be still” in the presence of the Lord, and “wait patiently for him to act”. So how do I wait AND go at the same time?
As I have journaled about before, “be still” (in the context of this passage) doesn’t mean “freeze” as much as it means “be quiet”. In other words, stop talking and LISTEN. As one writer said, we want to do so many things “for” our heavenly Daddy sometimes, when all He really wants for us to do is climb up on His lap, whisper, “I love you, Daddy” into His ear, and fall asleep in His arms. I think we try too hard to earn His love and acceptance sometimes – at least I know I do.
The “wait patiently” part can be a challenge sometimes for me, as well. I don’t “wait” very well. I want to act… fix… strategize… and, as my wife well knows, I can be quite stubborn sometimes. I think that there must be a listening phase before the acting phase. There must be a time when we still ourselves (quiet ourselves) before God and say, “What do You want me to do?” And then, through the Bible, through books, or just through feeling and sensing His leading, we figure out what path we need to take.
And then, as we step out in faith, He will direct our steps… as we’re going. If we just sit and wait for the certified letter from God to arrive with the entire plan mapped out for us, we will miss what He has for us. God expects us to use what He has taught us – to step out and act on it. God then opens the doors and “points” to them, if we will stay attentive. He directs our steps as we walk – as we do something.
God wants us to live a great life in Him – to experience joy and fulfillment as we honor Him with our lives. He is interested in us and our future. He “delights in every detail of our lives.” And as David says earlier in this psalm:
4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
He wants us to live a life totally obsessed with Him and consumed by Him. He has so much He wants to show us, if we will just listen… and follow.
God help me to be quiet and listen to You. Help me go when You say go. Help me to run hard and courageously for You. Guide my steps as I move… as I go… as I act. Take me… lead me, O God.
