...lead me to the Rock...

Wednesday and Friday mornings, I pack a lunch and head up to the construction site at the new Center.  I spend the morning helping out with whatever needs to be done.  Sometimes it's just grunt work, and hard to feel motivated to be there because construction work isn't my passion, but it's also an opportunity to cover each brick and bucket of sand in prayer.

 

After work ends at noon, there's not enough time for me to return home for lunch, so I head up to the mountains for about two hours to eat my lunch until Center in the afternoon.  About a year ago, I found the perfect rock to sit on about 10 minutes up the river bed, surrounded by alder trees and high enough I can see a ways up the valley.

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation;

He is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

My salvation and my honor depend on God;

He is my mighty rock, my refuge.

view from my rock

My time on the rock has been good for my soul.  It's a quiet place where there are no distractions and I can listen to His voice that I sometimes allow to be drowned out by the noises of music, internet and the million and one things always on my mind to do.  As a ministry worker, I often feel pressure to do to go to be busy and fill time.  But that's not my primary responsibility.  My first job is to be still, to listen, and to PRAY.  Time on the rock puts it all in perspective.

  Hiking down brings more reminders.  I hike through lovely patches of wildflowers, the Andean flowers bursting with color out from the hillside.  God's beauty is so evident in creation, but a lot harder to find sometimes in the classroom, just a few minutes hike down the mountain.  I usually pick a bouquet for my kitchen table to remind me of the beauty of the mountains and to look for that same beauty in my kids.

the hike down

Hear my cry, O God;
    listen to my prayer.

 From the ends of the earth I call to you,
    I call as my heart grows faint;
    lead me to the ROCK that is higher than I.

Psalm 61:2

looking up the river valley