Are You Sure You Trust Me?

My go to place for alone time is the desert mountains. In less than 10 minutes I can go from my garage to the trailhead, ready to start off on my trek. I like to say I am a well-rounded hiker. I’ll hike flat trails, higher ascending trails, desert, forest, beach trails. You name it, I’m game.

Going alone on hikes is a time for me to think, pray, and hike fast or slow, whatever I want. Going with my dog Darla I have to move faster, and it is a fun time for us to bond out in the wild. Yes, I do talk to her while on the hike, “Darla, let’s go this way. Oh, Darla, let’s avoid that rock in case there is a snake. Wow, girl, I don’t want to run into any snakes today.” She is so caring and lets me talk all I want, as long as I let her stop and receive some love from all the other hikers.

While there are times I enjoy being alone, hiking with friends is a special time to catch up on our lives, share our concerns and struggles, and encourage one another. Persuading my husband Kurt to hike with me takes some effort, because he prefers wheels, as in mountain biking. But, I love that we can hold hands while we hike and talk about our children, our jobs, and our growing list of dream house projects.

Then, there are the hikes I love to go on with my whole family. If you happen to like hiking or other outdoor adventures and can’t get your kiddos out there with you, don’t lose HOPE. As long as I have plenty of snacks and water, my family actually does enjoy the challenge and quality time together. Well, a nice burger meal afterwards as bribery doesn’t hurt.

Each time our family attempts a new hike; however, it’s typically a full day where we explore new ground. Even hiking alone at times I can experience something new and different. You may not think hiking with your phone off is finding new ground, but go with me on this trail to hear my story.

One day, I was hiking for the purpose of alone time to think and really listen to anything God wanted to say to me. During the last 20 minutes, I turned off my phone completely. I don’t usually do this. As I was trekking along and gazing at the beautiful sky and mountain views, God did it. He put a message into my head. I must have been thinking about Hope Follows and where this show and story will be going, because what I heard was this, “Hope Follows is a product of your overactive thinking that is being channeled into clever, relevant messages of hope.” Wow! That is exactly my intention for Hope Follows (the book, blog and show), to create a place for people to hear stories of struggle and the hope found in their journey. God was speaking to me.

The idea of overactive thinking was touched on in my previous blog post, but now, I especially see this trait of mine as not something just to fine tune but something to embrace. Often, when I’m thinking of some potential blog idea, I record it in my phone notes or on a voice memo. Well, if you recall, my phone was off. Oh, it was tempting to turn it on, though I made a deal with myself to be “phoneless” the rest of my hike. But, I didn’t want to forget this sentence, because it felt like a mission statement I could use.

I actually was debating with myself on whether to “Turn it on…no, don’t, okay just real quick, no!” Then, I heard the words, “Do you trust me? Do you trust me to remember it?”

There I stood on the trail and facing a question I needed to answer, to God. “Yes, God, I do trust you that I will remember the statement you gave to me.” My phone stayed off. As I continued on, I was reciting the words over and over out loud, because I didn’t want to forget. And God told me to trust Him, right? Kind of seems like I was using my own efforts to memorize the words, doesn’t it?  That is when I stopped repeating out loud the statement and enjoyed the rest of my hike.

I felt pretty confident I was not going to forget the statement, but after my enjoyable hike finished, I was at the car ready to write it down. I forgot it! Seriously, I did! I thought to myself, “Oh, well. I am not going to stress even though that statement was something I needed.  God said to trust Him, so I will.” Then, within a minute or so, it popped back into my head! I can’t even put into words how moving that moment was with God. I pulled out my notebook in the car and began to write away!  This blog was not only inspired by true events, but it was totally true.

What I learned is to really trust God with the little and big things. He tested me big time, because it would have been so easy to turn my phone on, record a voice memo and turn it off again. We could talk all day long about TRUST ~ what it means, what it looks like, how it’s hard, and more. And we will do just that, resume talking about TRUST in my June post.

I have a lot happening with 3 graduates this spring and continued work on Hope Follows. I bet you have much happening as well. Let’s take a deep breath and enjoy the journey. Smell the roses. Chat with you next time about trust.

Until then, go for a walk and turn your phone off. Never know what message you’ll receive from God!