"Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world"-The Grateful Dead "Eyes of the World"
In one of my earlier posts I shared my story of how I became a Christian. There's more to my testimony than that one story, there were definitely more instances that contributed to the fostering of my faith. I'm going to share one of those stories now.
The summer after my freshman year in high school, I got a phone call from my mentor Jay Hanson about going on a father-son camping trip in Moab, Utah with my 7:07 group. I was pretty excited about this because I had never been to a desert before and I thought it would be really fun hanging out with all my 7:07 buddies. The catch was that I had to organize it, I had to call the guys, find out where we would camp, what we would do, and how we would get there. Certain circumstances led to this trip from being a trip for the whole 7:07 group to being a trip with only me, my dad, my brother, and Jay and his son. It was still a lot of fun and really let me bond more with my dad and brother and Jay and his son.
During this trip we did a lot of man stuff. We hiked, we went canoeing, and we used the restroom wherever we felt like it. We also had Bible studies that we did and we were able to not just grow closer together, but also grew closer to God. One of my favorite memories was when we were hiking in Arches National Park. There was a large rock and Cole, Jay's son, asked if he could climb it (it seemed like the only three things Cole and my little brother wanted to do was eat, pee, and climb stuff). Jay answered with "that's why God put it there." Cole, my brother, and I immediately climbed that rock.
Jay's response has always stuck with me since then. Many times people believe that God has better things to worry about than them, that the Creator of the universe doesn't worry about a singular person. What if we're wrong, what if when God was creating earth he made a huge mountain in the Western part of North America and over the past billion years he made the wind pass over this mountain and had the rain hit the mountain so that by the time five people from Brunswick, Georgia made a trip to Moab, Utah, what used to be a mountain was a rock, small enough and with enough handles to climb, but big enough to be exciting for a certain child to climb. What if God made certain things in nature for us to enjoy?
How many times have you seen something and nature and said "Wow! That's so cool! But, I have something else to do, too bad." What if at that moment you missed out on something that God made just for you? I'm reminded of a time when I was working at a local grocery store as a bag boy. I was outside getting grocery carts when a lady came up to me. She said "Excuse me, but look at that!" She pointed to what may have been one of the most gorgeous sunsets I've ever seen. She said "Doesn't it just look like it belongs in a western movie? I just had to show someone that." I was so glad she did too.
When you have an experience like this you have to take advantage of it. When you're outside and see something that you want to climb or look at, do it. Or just share it with someone else. Who knows? Maybe that's why God put it there.
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