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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