Guide vs. Follower

Some people may not know that I directed an outdoor adventure ministry for about 12 years. I guided backpacking trips, rappelled groups off the side of mountains, taught survival schools, and taught outdoor education field trips.

 In wilderness medicine, I was trained what to do in a bad storm with lightning. Honestly, nothing can prepare you for actually being in a lighting storm. I was guiding a trip along the Appalachian Trail on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. Beautiful views and the group was great. A lot of very new hikers. In a certain point of the trip, we were hiking across balds. A bald in a place on top of a mountain where there are no tress, shrubs, etc. It is just wild grass. Off in the distance, we saw storm clouds coming. I was starting to get nervous, so I told the group that we need to pick up the pace a little bit.

At this particular point, I began to see what kind of danger we were actually in. This particular bald stretched about 2 miles of up and down rough trails. Many of the backpacks we were using had aluminum frames. Lastly, being at about 5,000 foot elevation, we would be in the middle of the storm cloud.

We finally found some boulders and small trees to wait out the storm. However, water on rocks can make a good conductor of electricity. We had our whole group sitting or standing on sleeping bags and sleeping mats to put some insulation between us and the wet ground. We all made it out alive and well, but it was certainly a very tense moment. My number one goal as the trained guide was get lead these teenagers through God's creation in a safe manner.

The Bible tells us about our Guide. It tells us how we should follow Him. R.C. Sproul was asked the question "Why do bad things happen to good people?" His replay was this "Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once, and He volunteered." 

Sometimes, I have felt that I should have guided God. That even if God could have helped me out a little, I still wanted to show God my worth. One thing that I have been reminded of is that I cannot make God love me anymore or any less. David Platt said this in his book Radical, "We are settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is about abandoning ourselves."

As I move closer and closer to my first visit at Emory Hospital, the more small that I feel. God has completely reminded me that He is in control of finances, health, family, etc. He is my guide, and I am called to follow Him.

Philippians 4:4-7 "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

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