Elephant Head at Madera Canyon

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”  2 Timothy 1: 7  Ryrie Study Bible NKJV

Yesterday we strolled Madera Canyon with our friends the Smiths from California.  My friend Bob has encountered three bears in Madera while birding this past year.  I walked slowly and carefully down the canyon expecting a bear sighting at any time.  My heart was racing… my feet softly stepping …and my camera ready to capture my time with Smoky.  Madera is known worldwide for birding and my friend Bob is a birder.  I am a bear lover.  We arrived at the end of the path and I heard a low growl.  Creeping towards the low growl with heart racing out of control, the growl stops.  I capture my breath and meander backwards hoping to spot my bear friend and I hear another roar.  Bob thinks it may be a havelina, Todd thinks it may be a mountain lion, my daughter just thinks I’m nuts.  Speaking of nuts… the signs all say not to feed the bears so we won’t… but I’m desperately seeking to see a big, beautiful brown bear… the suspense is brutal and realistically the bear encounter seemed really exciting till I am profoundly aware of the close proximity of his warning call.  Back to Smoky… we proceed through another opening down the heavily shaded path… down the canyon, the bear is deeper and louder this time and a little metal- like in its communication with our hiking party. We will refer to the bear from now on as “Heavy Metal”.  Bob once saw a small bear hanging out in a tree, so I wonder if Heavy Metal is watching me.  Bible teachers like to use the acronym FEAR when teaching the concept of faith.  FEAR stands for false evidence appearing real.  To believe in the unseen is faith.  To believe in a lie is fear.  I had faith I would see a bear because of Bob’s eyewitness account of bears at Madera.  The fear I felt each time I heard the bear roar was a lie.  Why?  You see the roar of Heavy Metal was simply cars driving over the metal grates on a cattle crossing on the adjacent road.  We choose to believe lies every day and this allows fear  to haunt our days and sometimes even our precious nights.  Luke 17:6 tells us only a small amount of faith is needed, as small as a mustard seed.   Romans 14:1 says we are to accept the person who has weak faith.  Hebrews 11 has great examples of faith. 

Faith is…ceasing to worry, leaving the future to the God who controls the future.  Pamela Reeve

Today Bob is at the Tucson Heart hospital recieving 5 bipasses… Bob had a heart attack a couple Christmas ago and we all struggled honestly with the fear of losing Him, and yet the Lord allowed us 2 more years of health befor this current scare.  We love Bob, and we all cried with concern.  I’m not sure who said it, but may I never forget that tears are God’s way of making sure that our lives don’t flood. 

I am resting in Faith… the Lord knows the number of days our beloved friend Bob has on this planet with sooo many beautiful elegant trogons for Bob to enjoy.

Fear on the other hand is evidence that we lack faith.  I became afraid of the bear I could not see, but still had faith that it was real. I am afraid Bob will die, but isn’t the Father in heaven Bob’s protector?

 Psalm 27:1 tells us that the Lord protects me from danger so why should I tremble? 

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Phiippians 4:6

 All this talk about fear and faith… where or where is she going with this?  Heavy Metal, my bear friend is the heavy metal of fear you drape around your neck as you step wearily into your day without God.  Faith is the freedom of walking restfully in the hope of a life filled with His powerful unmistakeable presence.  Fear or Faith?  

The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.  William Faulkner, 1897-1962 American Novelist 

Imagine Elephant Head above as your mountain of fear… start dropping your fears stone by stone and place at the foot of the cross.  Stay tuned Bob is still in surgery…

“To become that which you are not you must go a way in which you are not.”   St. John of the Cross

  Rest in Him, Trish

How does one pray in the midst of climbing the switchbacks and pulling off the cholla.  We call them Teddy Bear Cholla’s here in the Sonoran Desert because of the soft cuddly visual they portray from a distance.

They like to become your companion as you stroll a beautiful desert path by jumping on your leg or arm and inflicting serious pain and suffering.  They hold onto you for dear life much as a child would hold onto a beloved teddy bear, only you don’t want the needles this particular teddy bear leaves in your skin. Imagine those needles to be each and every neglected thought of  unforgiveness towards anyone you encounter.  The cholla needles inhibit your communion with your fellow man and God.  Stroll slowly… stay alert and be well rested as you journey across the rocks, washes and desert.   Confess your cholla needles to a friend and enjoy resting in the desert instead of unrest in the desert.

Cynthia Heald is a friend of Elisabeth Elliot and quotes her in “Maybe God is Right After All”

“The trail is steep and very rocky, and gets steeper and rockier the nearer it gets to the summit.  The company of a friend does not make the distance shorter, but makes it seem shorter.  It doesn’t eliminate any of the rocks, but the rocks don’t seem so terribly daunting.  The glad receiving of the yoke of Christ halves our life’s burden.  The road is still a tough one, but the roughness won’t matter nearly so much”

Don’t take any cholla needles to your summit.         

 Rest in Him, Trish

This afternoon I’m resting… seriously resting…we have not had an evening free or day for that matter for a couple weeks.  I should be seriously embarrassed to disclose my gaffe.  My sign off is Resting in Him,… He… that is God is the only place I’ve had to rest lately.  Dallas Willard was very instructive for me today.  I just began “Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice” check out page 110 if you own the book.  Dallas states: “The body lies at the center of the spiritual life.  It is potential energy, and to access that energy is the constant human goal and problem.  If there is gasoline in my tank, I can liberate the energy in it and make it do the work of moving my car.”  Choosing to put the brakes on was a emergency visit to His dwelling place today for me. (2 Peter 1:3-11 really poured mist on me).  I skipped the hike, did not answer the phone… ok maybe once when my friend Ash called.  Good thing I stayed back home and made like a sloth.  My husband the Pastor( not a sloth) has been hitting the trail hard all day…he almost got bit by a rattlesnake this morning on the way up Finger Rock. He walked in a few seconds ago from a hike up the mountain with a fellow Pastor and an elder.  His hearing was sharp and he came up on a four foot rattlesnake that was up and ready to strike.  I’m so glad I stayed home to veg and regroup.   My love descibes the rattlesnakes head as gigantic… this from a man not prone to any exaggeration.  The head was as big as my hand.   They calmed themselves with a cup of jo at our local grocer.  While sitting on the patio a lady pointed at the other pastor and yelled rat… rat… apparently a pack rat was sitting beneath him, tucked up to the end of his feet which were pointed in a v under his seat.  Pack rat’s look like mini kangeroos and love to take shiny things into there nests.  A gal who owns the local salon in town had one in her sofa and didn’t know it.  She missed keys, jewelry, pens anything they can get there little hands on… they do… or should I say claws.  I’m so glad I undertook a day of solitude instead of hike day.  Who knows I could have had a rat sitting underneath me after I was bitten by a snake.  Just another day in the desert.  Stay tuned I’m out to dinner with two pastors and an elder tonight… my fav food is mexican of course so we are going out for tacos tonight.  

 Rest in Him, Trish

“Though I am always in haste, I am nver in a hurry;  because I never undertake more work than I can go through in perfect calmness of spirit.”

John Wesley, The Journal of the Reverend John Wesley

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