Monday, November 27, 2006

Letterboxing

I took my oldest son and my niece letterboxing this weekend. Michael's 4H group has some hiking/letterboxing projects that the 4H'ers can work on. Michael loves trails, hiking, trees and the great outdoors, so this is perfect for him.

My sister and mother stayed at the house with my two little ones while I took Michael and Cherokee to the Indian Rockhouse Trailhead. It was a 3 1/2 mile trail, with the most difficult part at the end. That is when everybody really began to complain about their legs hurting and so forth. Why they saved the steepest most difficult part for the end of the trail, I'm not sure, but they did.

We saw lots of sinkholes, natural rock formations that were amazing and squirrels. The little creatures seemed to be everywhere on the trail. We had clues from the 4H club, and we followed them carefully. However, we never found the letterbox kit, and therefore weren't able to add our stamps to the journal inside it.

Some interesting things happened on that hike. My niece, who was so ready to go and ready for an adventure, was the one struggling the most at the end. She had failed to pace herself carefully at the beginning.

I had never been on this particular trail, but I have been hiking before. The trail map from the ranger station, as well as the 4H letterbox clues, gave me enough information to realize that we were very close to the Indian Rockhouse, the halfway point of the trail. We had one more steep climb, and then it would level out and we'd get to the rockhouse. But Michael and Cherokee begged for a rest. They were pleading, truth be told. I informed them there were no breaks until we got to the rockhouse. I reminded them that I was 35 years old and had three kids. If I can do it, they can, because they are young and full of energy. Come on guys, keep up with me! I told them that they would thank me later for pushing them on now. We finally made it up the hill and to the rockhouse and we were greatly rewarded for our efforts. The scenery was beautiful. I explained to Cherokee that it is much easier to get a car up a steep hill, if you have the momentum from going down the previous hill. It would be much harder to drive up that hill, if you had come to a complete stop at the bottom of it. I told her it was the same with our hiking. If we had stopped and took a rest, when we had good momentum, just before this one last steep hill, that hill would have been much harder to climb.

I learned a lot yesterday. I learned that previous hiking experience, even though I wasn't familiar with this particular trail, had helped me have a better hike. I also learned that not pacing yourself at the beginning can make it very hard for you at the end. Actually, my niece learned that one. I learned that even though we were looking for the stamp, and never found it, we still enjoyed the journey. I also learned that the strap on a $6 desert canteen from Walmart isn't worth 50 cents. My poor niece ended up carrying her canteen on more than half of the trail, because the strap broke. She had just purchased the canteen on Wednesday, and it broke this weekend. But she didn't complain, and she carried her canteen. I remembered how peaceful it was on the trail, and how blessed it is to let God see your heart so openly out in nature.

6 comments:

David said...

Yes, I love to hike in nature. I have a favorite since teenage years, Old Rag Mountain. A pretty trail all the way up, and then on top nothing but huge boulders and an amazing view out to probably 50 miles of farms all around except the the back, which is the beautiful clothed mountain range of Skyline drive.

Take care, and happy hiking.

Roseuvsharon said...

He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock.

Hiking God's nature brings many old hymns to mind. They remind me of Jesus' parables. They are about things that are common to people that illustrate God's love for us. Amazingly, many of the old hymns can still reach us.

In addition to that, we have new hymns and praise songs that also reach us with illustrations of God's love.

Yet it was the old hymns that came pouring forth while hiking.

David said...

I particularly love the older hymns. They point us to God's work for us. The new praise songs generally say what we are going to do or are doing, "I'm praising You," etc. The focus is not right. We need to remember what God has done. That is what draws us to Him. What I do in response to Him is beautiful, but only in light of what He has done. Otherwise it doesn't amount to a hill of beans! I believe this is where the false revival of the charismatic movement is leading multitudes astray, thinking they are doing God service. What do you think?

Anonymous said...

Me thinks modern Praise music is just as valid as old hymns. Who on earth gave David or anyone else the right to decide what is valid and what isnt' before god and label something as a false revival?
Now, I have heard some people make the ridiculous accusation that all praise and worship music is shallow and too repetitive. But anyone with any knowlege of worship music knows that there are many beautiful and touching praise songs out there that lift up the risen lord.
God will decide whats true and what isnt. Sounds like David holds himself and his beliefs to be above others or perhaps even to be a prophet himself?
The bible tells us many many time to offer sacrifice of praise and thats what hymn and modern praise music is doing:

Lord, I lift your name on high
lord I love to sing your praises
Im so glad your in my life
Im so glad you came to save us
You came from heaven to earth to show the way
from the earth to the cross my debt to pay
from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky
Lord I lift your name on high.

This is one of the most popular of modern praise and worship songs. I do not see anything "false" or irrelevant in it. Praise music may not be your thing, but maybe David should consider the feelings of others who may not see or experience things exactly as he does before spouting such nonsense.

Roseuvsharon said...

Music is such a touchy issue.

Yes, there is false revival, but I've seen false revival and false unity in churches where people used praise and worship music as well as in churches where people used stiff as starch hymns.

So music, in my opinion, cannot be a standard in judging whether or not a religious body is in false revival.

Yes, there are repetitive praise and worship songs, but there are also repetitive hymns, if we stop to take a look.

Anonymous said...

Wow, somehow I missed this discussion. I whole-heartedly agree with you, Rose. I've seen both.