Avoid the swamps of life

When I was about 14 years old, a small group of youth from the church I attended at the time was led by several fearless adults on a hike up a mountain located about 50 miles to the east of Seattle, Washington. While none of us were terribly experienced at hiking, we all had been walking since birth. And since there was a trail, we figured we were good to go. Anyone could climb Mt. Si. Or so we’d heard.

We had no trouble finally reaching the plateau atop the mountain, but we decided as a group not to attempt climbing the “haystack”, which is an uneven stub of rock sticking up about 50 feet high at the very top. After spending about a half hour looking down into the valley and town of North Bend about 3100 feet bellow, we headed back down. Somehow, we’d forgotten to drop bread crumbs, and, part of the way down at one switch-back in the forest, we wandered off-course. I do not know why someone didn’t notice right away that we were off the trail, but the whole group of about 15 was soon far off into the woods with no idea of exactly where we were.

We did have some idea of our general bearing, since we could tell where the sun was. We knew it to be setting in the west. We also knew that to the west at the base of the mountain there was a road. Since we were not experienced hikers, we really had no idea how far it was to the road, nor did we have a clue what lay between us and that road. But we figured that was our best bet.

Now, the trail to the top comes up the backside of the mountain, from the southeast. At the south base is a small triangular hill called Little Si. In the photo, it is the small dark triangular shape at the bottom right. Our group managed to struggle over the saddle between the mother mountain and Little Si, and directly into some rather large, swampy areas. For this we were not prepared.

Our leaders held several vigorous discussions about which way to go, with one adult male determined to go his way, and two others determined to go around another way. Us kids compromised and went straight ahead, getting wet above our shoe tops. The three adults went their ways, and eventually caught up to us, wet well above the knees.

Finally, about dusk, we reached the road. The men walked about two miles to get the vehicles while we kids and the one wife with us waited at the road-side. It had been quite an adventure, with all of the problems having been totally avoidable if we’d had a map and had paid attention to where we were putting our feet in the hurry to get down the mountain.

Have you ever had a mountaintop experience in your spiritual life, only to find yourself wandering on swampy ground only a short while later? Satan so loves to get us off the trail, to get our minds into his territory. How necessary it is to keep the Lord’s road map close at hand, and to make use of the Guide He has promised. May your walk with Him always be on higher ground.

Didn't we see that big tree over there just a few minutes ago?

Dr. G