The Mountain

I went up to the mountain

Because you asked me to

Up over the clouds

To where the sky was blue

I could see all around me

Everywhere

I could see all around me

Everywhere

      -Patty Griffin

I'm at the end of week three of training for my fall "whatever I'm going to do" event. While I haven't officially committed to whatever it is, I've got my sights set on a sprint triathlon at the end of August, a spartan race in mid-September, or a 1/2 marathon in mid-October. Since I haven't really trained for anything on what seems like a decade, I'm trying to figure out my limits, but I've set some sort of goal and I've really enjoyed getting back in to my old passion. 

Since J is full-on committed to the Spartan race, we decided to trek to Crowders mountain and run up the Pinnacle Trail on #nationalgetoutdoorsday yesterday. It's a 4+ mile strenuous hike round trip and of course, elevation involved since its up the mountain. And fabulously so, we conquered it (minus that one time running down the mountain it almost conquered me because a tree root jumped up to stub my toe and it took about 10 steps to regain my footing and I'm pretty sure I thought I was going nowhere but down....). Nonetheless, I'll keep training, running, swimming, cross training, etc and see what happens. 

But once we got to the top, we took a few minutes to pause and take a gaze out around us at the NC/SC ridge line and the Queen City view. 

At the moment of seeing what was before, a flood of memories rushed over me from my last mountain summit, just over a month ago when I hiked up the mountain in Teguc the day we were heading back home. I was an emotional wreck that day, for deep inside me I longed to stay with my new found friends, though I knew my return home was inevitable. 

I remember standing at the peak looking down at the valley of the city and feeling "the tug." God placed a desire in my heart that I just haven't been able to shake. There hasn't been a day since my return that I haven't thought about the people, prayed for each of them and dealt longed to be with them. If I'm being honest, a moment of each day, I just want to be there. 

There, on the peak that morning, God revealed a great promise to me-I WILL return to that very same spot to be with those sweet people as soon as the Lord allows. With this promise I have prayed daily for God's will to be done and for the patience to wait on His timing for my return. How and when, exactly, that will be accomished, I'm still unsure. But I am hopeful and trusting in the Lord in all of these things. 

Until then, I'll continue to teach my children the importance of caring for the widows and the orphans (James 1) here in my own home so that when we are in a different place, they will be stirred up to continue doing just that.