Lessons From The Trail: Faith, Foolishness, and Presumption!

I slept in today for once, and when I got up and about I decided to do a hike up to Dragon's Tooth. It's a moderate to difficult hike with a lot of rock climbing/ scampering involved. It's a great hike, but I haven't been up there in 5-6 years. When I started to plan the hike it was decently warm for this season, and it WASN'T raining. In the couple hours between planning and execution things changed! Thank God for raingear!

It got cold and wet pretty quickly. I ended up solo-hiking because none of the 15 people to whom I'd texted an invite responded. Their loss! ;-)







Since I'd left late and had slow going-due to wet rocks,picture taking, Twittering/ Facebook posting, Texting, etc (Quit laughing at me! I'm a geek who likes to hike!) it took me an extra hour getting "almost" to the top. (By this time it was cold, raining, and only an hour from being dark. I knew I had at least an hour and a half hike back to the road - it actually ended up being much longer thanks to an unplanned detour you can read about in my HCG Weightloss Journey Blog if you want to.)



When I say "almost" to the top, I mean that I got to the "mountain goat ledges" before the "big metal staples" that they have in one spot due to the absolute steepness of the trail. The ledges are approx 3-6 inches wide in most places, and you have to find toe/hand holds to climb up to them and maneuver along them to the top/right. On a dry day there're just a lot of fun (if you like to play on the rocks, which I do.)



Anyway, the Holy Spirit and I had a discussion. I didn't have a good feeling about going on in those conditions by myself, but it's in my nature to forge ahead in spite of rain, cold, snow, ice, etc... So there was a part of me that still wanted to go on. But I was smart enough to stop and ask the Holy Spirit's opinion. He told me not to go on. So, with only a twinge of disappointment, I turned around and headed back down the mountain.

As I was hiking I heard these words from the Holy Spirit, "Faith, Foolishness, and Presumption." Now that's a title to a book by Kenneth E. Hagin, but it's also a message that the Holy Spirit began to teach me through the decision making process I'd just gone through. My hike today was comparative to my faith walk. We should be at a place in our faith walk where it is second-nature to us. We do it without having to think hard about it or worry about it. (This is different than the "checking-out" mentally that I mention later.)

There are times though in our walk that we get to a place of decision. There might be something that we really want to do, and it might not be a bad thing to do. We may even have done it in the past. But we can sense something's not quite right. We can even see an extra danger involved, but we still want to do it. Then we hear the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us, saying, "Don't do it."

When we see the warning signs or danger, we should immediately enquire of the Holy Spirit for His leading. It would be foolishness to go on without His leading. He may tell us to stop, or He may tell us to push on anyway. (For example, a Pastor in a country where it's illegal to preach the gospel still ministers to his congregation in secret meetings that, if discovered could cost him his life. Unfortunately, that happens. It's a risk of carrying the gospel to those who live in areas closed to the gospel.) No matter what direction He leads us, it needs to be Him doing the leading. It's foolishness to not even ask for direction.

Now, once I enquired as to whether or not I could proceed, and the Holy Spirit told me "no", I still could have gone on anyway. I could have said, "God says He'll give His angels charge over me to keep my feet from falling. He can't let me fall off the slick rocks in the rain." Uhn huh! yeah, right! That would have been presumption in my mind. According to http://www.yourdictionary.com/presumption (01/11/2009), the first listing for presumption is:

1.the act of presuming; specif.,
a.an overstepping of proper bounds; forwardness; effrontery

An overstepping of proper bounds. That pretty simply describes going against the Holy Spirit's direction. And when we do so, we walk out from that umbrella of protection. In the case of going further in my hike and free-climbed the ledges, even though I've done them before, it could have led to a nasty fall, by myself, in the cold and rain. And the chances of anyone being there in time to help would have been slim. A decision to act presumptuously could realistically have cost my life.

It's easy to go along on auto-pilot at times. We settle into our own pace and "check out". It's important to be observant. Watch for warning signs or dangers that might cause you to lose your footing. One mis-step on this faith path can cause you to, at the very least, waste precious time, but in some cases can have deadly results on the call which God's placed on your life. It's imperative that we're always attentive to that still small voice...always checking the Spirit to make sure that we're hearing His voice, and not that of our own desires.

If we'll do that, we'll have adventurous but safe journeys. A life led by the Holy Spirit is an incredible adventure. If you've never experienced that yet, drop me a line and I'll introduce you to an awesome companion!

I got done with my hike just in time to make it to church for prayer at 7pm on the dot. I was wet and cold, still in my rain gear, and I looked a mess! But I was on time! Despite the rain and cold, I had a great hike today. I'm looking forward to many more opportunities to learn "Lessons From The Trail".