Wilderness 3.0

“The LORD is my Shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside peaceful streams, HE RESTORES MY SOUL, He leads me on paths of righteousness for His names sake.” Psalm 23:1-3

I didn’t know my soul needed this!

It was likely the last day of fresh snow for the winter up at Mount Seymour. It was mid-March in Vancouver, BC, and a big storm was about to hit the coast bringing excessive amounts of warm air and liquid sunshine. The snow falling was already turning into rain; there was 6” of fresh snow but it was heavy.

It was an early wet morning.

And I went up the mountain early for a little prayer hike. But I wasn’t hiking, I was ski touring—which is basically like ski hiking. You walk up the mountain on your skis and then ski down. Given the forecast, there was nobody up there. And, snow has a brilliant way of deadening sound. All I could hear was the light patter of rain on my jacket and the movement of my skis over the slushy snow. For the most part it was dead quiet! When I stopped everything was completely still.

The month before this had been hectic. I had all sorts of things going on in my life both at work and personally. That included the imminent arrival of my fourth child. My world was spinning and moving quickly. The Sunday before we had been singing a song in church that I just couldn’t get myself to sing: “Lord I need you…” I couldn’t get the words out, my heart wasn’t in it at all.

But then in the quiet snowy forest, something shifted in me. Something or perhaps someOne opened up my heart. And for whatever reason, I found myself belting out on the mountain top, “Lord I need you, O, I need you…!”

And as I descended I kept thinking to myself, “I didn’t know how much my soul needed this.”

I needed to get away into creation, to be alone with God where he would lead me and restore my soul.

Has there been a time in your life when you entered into silence, solitude, and stillness where God met you?

Take some time this week to spend in silence, solitude, and stillness!