Faith and Fitness - Let’s Grow!

The sun was just coming up over the mountain in the distance. I watched the sun melt away the shadows as it rose. The slight chill at 6,295 feet in the Sierra Nevada Mountains was disappearing quickly with the rise of the summer sun. I was sitting there alone enjoying God’s creation. Roads, cars, phones, TVs, and the fast pace of life were many miles away. The only way in and out of this place was by foot. Backpacking is an awesome way to get away to spend time alone with God away from distractions. It helps me to focus. If I could describe these excursions in just one word it would be contentment.

Contentment can be an elusive at times! Here is an excerpt from my journal after one of my deployments:

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We sung the praise song Blessed Be Your Name by Matt Redman in worship today. It totally caught me off guard on how it impacted me. Here are the parts of the song that really got me.

Blessed be your name
In the land this is plentiful
Where the streams of abundance flow
Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s all as lit should be
Blessed be your name

I realized that was exactly where I was at that moment. I was deployed and made it back in one piece. I’m home with my family. I’m standing worshiping my God with my church family. The sun is “shining down on me” and “the world’s all as it should be.” Those thoughts were contrasted with:

Blessed be your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name
On the road marked with suffering
Oh, there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be your name

I realized that I experienced these stanzas as well this past year. These words are easy to sing when I’m not going through “the wilderness” or “the desert place”—no pun intended! I found it very difficult to have this attitude during really hard times. There were days when I couldn’t bring myself to that place. There is definitely “pain in the offering.”
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I recently found myself in a similar situation at a church service. We sung Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, I Stand in Awe, and Jesus What a Friend of Sinners Medley. We then celebrated the Lord’s Supper. It was the first time I was able to thank God for my deployments. Worship is so powerful!

Contentment—it’s so elusive especially when we “walk through the wilderness.” Let us never forget that even when we struggle God never leaves us.

Joshua 1:5, “I never leave you or forsake you.”

Matthew 28:20, “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Also, let us not forget Job’s response to suffering and the strength he found in worship.

Job 1:20-21, “At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”

Faith and Fitness - Let’s Grow!