Wilbur Rocks
What does it take in your life to be prepared? You can have all the right gear and skills, yet still be inadequately prepared for the future. The Bible says to have a heart to seek God’s face (Psalm 27:8) and God will lead us in the right way to go (Psalm 32:8). Without Jesus we are lost, but He says you will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13).
Elijah, my four year old son, and I have been intentionally working on our relationship. As part of that journey he asked me if I would take him down a hard canyon. I thought it was a great idea, so I choose a fun canyon (Wilbur) that I have previously done. I got some new information on a different exit trail out of West Clear Creek (the canyon Wilbur drains into) that cuts off a number of miles and the time it typically takes to complete the canyon. So, we decided to do the canyon and scout out the new exit trail. For the adventure we invited two awesome men from our church, Todd, and his four year old son, Aaron.
Only a mountain
We had all the right gear (topo map, GPS, head lamps, wet suits, extra warm gear, technical gear, water, food, misc. safety equipment) and all the right skills, yet we still needed something more to be prepared. We successfully negotiated the technical canyon (Wilbur), taking longer than expected due to the canyon being full to flowing with water on our trip and having countless new fallen trees to negotiate. Still we were happily making our way out of West Clear Creek (the canyon Wilbur runs into) when we discovered that we would need more than our GPS (with tracks of the exact exit route we intended to hike) and topo map to exit. When we got close to where we thought the exit trail should start out of West Clear Creek our GPS did not have enough satellites to give us accurate coordinates. So, I scouted ahead, came back, and then we prayed for help. I looked across the canyon and saw a nearly vertical crevasse climbing several hundred feet up. I went up it praying and immediately found a trail marker, so we all started our ascent. Climbing out of the canyon we lost our way four other times and each time, after praying, God answered with a trail marker. One time we had two choices on which way to go and we prayed, then chose an option and twenty minutes later we found another trail marker. It was important that we did not make any wrong turns, otherwise we would have been forced to spend the night on the cliff. We had the gear to do so safely, but it would have worried our families to be gone so much longer than anticipated.
One of our prayers was that we make it out of the vertical canyon before the sun set, and just as the sun set we reached to canyon rim. Then we had another two hours of forest hiking with the moon to light our way and head lamps when the tree cover got too thick to see. As we were summitting yet another mini mountain, I started to get serious leg cramps. We stopped and prayed that the leg cramps would go away and not return. My cramps went away and never came back. Todd told me later that he had started getting arm cramps, but after we prayed, his cramps also disappeared.
Have you ever been in a place where you were completely dependent upon God? A place where you pray and God answers, getting all the glory. The only thing better than being in a place like that, is being there with your son. Allowing him to see 1) his father humbly pray for help 2) God answer 3) praises and glory be given to the Lord for His direct and immediate intervention. I am so thankful that I got to experience a journey like that with Elijah.
Gear and skills are important resources to have for our journey through life. Even more important is a relationship with Jesus, only then will we be truly prepared. God answered our prayers over and over again and without Him and His guiding hand we would have been and will always be lost.
Mighty Men
CAR!!!
The Making of a Man – Wilbur Canyon from FunhogFamily on Vimeo.
