Your Strength or His?

Journal 2005 09 29

The men were complaining. Up the Mighty Missouri River, through the Gates of the Rockies, around the Great Falls of the Missouri, through the rattlesnake infested cliffs in Montana and over the Rockies in much travail and no complaining. Why now? They are sick! Most are almost immobilized from something in the change of diet. And yet, they do their best to advance. Today, they move downriver near today’s Orofino, Idaho and set up “Canoe Camp.” These tough guys have been out of the mountains for one week now and still they are debilitated by the inability to digest their food easily.

It is once again Divine Providence that has allowed them to make this sickly transition under the care of old chiefs and women. I can’t help but ponder their fate had they been required to be ever vigilant from the probing, testing nature that is found in young men of every stripe.

I’m able to compress the last few days into this single report because of their similarities. It has been “worm, verry worm, hot and fine” all week. The old chiefs remaining in camp are wonderfully curious and hospitable. William Clark must have had an iron will. In spite of being sick himself he sends out the hunters who are at all able to rouse themselves to find game. A handful of deer are harvested, but not nearly enough for all to eat venison. Clark and the chiefs proceed downstream to look for trees suitable for canoe building.

Now that they have relocated camp, Clark appoints those who think they can begin to work. Large pine trees are in abundance and waiting for axes to fall and shape them into river worthy craft. Even now the Pacific Ocean is beckoning our travelers. Clark issues axes to the six men who think they feel well enough to begin to work. Have I said it enough before? These guys are tough!

I’ve spent some time in Orofino, Idaho. It is a beautiful place built around the lively Clearwater River that formed the valley it occupies. A great spot on earth now filled with the kind of people you’d welcome as your next-door neighbors. And it was that way two hundred years ago.

The simple thought from this lesson asks how tough are we? Do we work when we don’t feel well? Do we whine and complain at our ailments to the exclusion of our responsibilities? Do we fail to make progress on our bigger mission when we are sick?

I was sick and in bed for over a month earlier this year. I did not advance on anything except racking up medical bills. Did I, could I, swing an axe, fall a tree and carve a canoe? If my life depended on it maybe. Maybe not. I did not do any of those things as my wonderful bride so tenderly cared for me. I did hear that still small voice of God speak to my heart about what He was going to do while I was unable to do anything. “I am at work and you can’t be.” A lot like the theme we spoke of earlier, “In weakness we are made strong.”  

Weakness in the middle of mission. How can we possibly win? “What more may I say? For the time will fail me telling about Gideon, Barak, and also Samson and Jephthah, and also David and Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith overcame kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the mouths of the sword, acquired power from weakness, became strong in war; made armies of foreigners to yield.
(Hebrews 11:32-34)

If you believe that God created the world and works all things for His purposes, then it is reasonable to conclude that in this week of weakness that God has hidden this small cadre of soldiers under His protective wing while they “acquire power from weakness.”

Are we willing to be weak that He may be strong? Are you tired in need of strength to complete the course He has set before you? Then the question is even more simple, “His strength or yours?”

Success and Distress

Journal 2005 09 24

“…the pleasure I now felt in having tryumphed over the rocky Mountains and decending once more to a level and fertile country where there was every rational hope of finding a comfortable subsistence for myself and party can be more readily conceived than expressed, nor was the flattering prospect of the final success of the expedition less pleasing.” Meriwether Lewis, September 22, 1805 upon his arrival at the first Nez Perce village after his last long descent from the heart of the Rockies. Can you hear the renewed hope in these words? Even though Clark and his men had peacefully met and passed through this village, all the women and children had abandoned the village in fear and were hiding from this larger band of newcomers. Remember, all the able bodied men were away warring against a neighboring tribe.

The hunters have been able to find some game and the men are able to rest, eat and gain strength. Captain Clark warned all of them against eating too much salmon and camas roots that the Indian women are harvesting and storing for winter. No one must have listened. Virtually everyone is suffering intestinal distress. Some of the men are so uncomfortable, I read it to mean bloated and cramping, that they are laying on their sides at the edge of the trail unable to move! Never were these soldiers more vulnerable than now.

It must have been a scraggly group that emerged from those mountains. The men traded for animal skins to make new shirts. Clark “despatched” Colter back to find some lost horses and retrieve some shot left they left behind. The shot was a cleverly designed and executed method of preserving their gunpowder while providing lead for the round lead balls their rifles fired. Lead canisters about the size of a large coffee can were filled with gunpowder and the lead lid was sealed. The gunpowder contained was the perfect amount for the number of lead balls that could be made from the lead container. It proved to be one of their best innovations. And one of their heavier ones. I’ve read that each canister weighed about seventy pounds. The legal weight limit for your UPS driver and most garbage cans. No wonder “some shot” got left behind! I’m trying real hard not to speak too much of future events as we take this parallel walk with our intrepid travelers, however, I will reveal that the party never ran short of lead and powder.

What strikes me again today is the good fortune that met the men at the end of their great battle against nature and their human frailties. Captain Lewis commented on their “greatly reduced state” and he had set his mind to complete a “forced march” to end this grueling portion of their westward push. They must have been a ragged looking group that stumbled out of the mountains. Imagine what fate they may have met had the warriors of the Nez Perce been in camp! Circumstances allowed for women, children and old men to meet, feed and care for them.

What do we expect when we are weak and frail? When we are worn out by the hardships of life? Do we expect to meet warriors or caregivers? God sends both. Warriors, not to attack and destroy us, but to protect us. He sends angels to care for us. Are you feeling weak and vulnerable, worn out by your journey? Seek God and His kingdom for protection and care. He tells us that when we are weak that He is strong. God reminds us frequently that He ”is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Do you know trouble today, do you need a safe place to run to? Have you reached the end of your own strength? Call out His Name and seek shelter in His strong tower of righteousness. He sent His son to bear all of your burdens and infirmities if you will but call on His Name. The God of All Comfort awaits you now.

Too Much of a Good Thing!

Journal 2005 09 21

“A fine morning,” Records William Clark. Great friend and fellow Captain Meriwether Lewis does not make the same observation. “…being determined to make a forced march tomorrow in order to reach if possible the open country. We killed a few Pheasants, and I killed a prairie wolf (coyote) which together with the balance of our horse beef and some crawfish which we obtained from the creek enabled us to make one more hearty meal, not knowing where the next was to be found…I find myself growing weak for the want of food and most of the men complain of a similar deficiency and have fallen off very much.”

Malnutrition and emaciation, a kinder name for starvation, is taking its toll on the party and Lewis sets his mind to reach the next marker, the plain, in hope of better food and all around conditions. Clark is busy with meeting and greeting but his concern for all his men is seen by his strong desire to send provisions for their care. He sets all hunters out in the morning. They return empty handed. Clark trades for food and dispatches Reubin Fields to Captain Lewis. He carries a load of dried salmon, berries, and bread.

Clark now has a different problem, one which most of the men will soon be plagued with. His last sentence in today’s record is, “I am verry Sick today and puke which much relive me.” Whether he ate too much or the diet is so different no one really knows. Some scientists have speculated that the camas roots may have contained a bacteria that attacked the men. Whatever the matter, Clark and most of the other men will experience sickness after filling themselves full so soon upon the heels of starvation.

Life is graphic sometimes and I can’t say what I’m thinking without talking about puking. But the simplest question to myself and anyone reading this is, “Have you ever got what you wanted and taken so much of it you puked it right back up?” I have. Halloween candy as a kid. It sure tasted good going down! Too much alcohol way too fast as a foolish young man. Too much money way too easy at any age. I could go on. We get what we think we want. Eat to our hearts content and then throw it all back up because we are not able to properly process it. The end result of overindulgence is we taste the goodness but lose the benefits of the object we have so long desired.

Hungry? We desire food. Lonely? Friendship. Broke? Money. Sick? Health. The list could go on to include all our human needs. Physical, emotional and spiritual.

Human nature handles lack better than riches. Starvation is not our end, nor is overindulgent abundance. God promises to meet all our needs according to His riches in glory. His is the standard we need to apply. Left to our own we overindulge. Left to nature or our enemies we may starve. Life is in God’s hand. He has promised to meet all our needs if we seek Him and His Kingdom before we seek or desire anything else. He measures out divine proportions for the perfecting our bodies and souls. Let’s follow Him and trust His ways to perfect contentment and fulfillment whether in plenty or in lack.

Pressing On, Proceeding On

Journal 2005 09 20

Clark and his advance party press on and descend to the plain seen from a perch high on the mountainsides. Here they find three Indian boys who, in fear, hide from them. Clark leaves his rifle with his men and finds two of them. He gives them ribbons and sends them to their village. Shortly after, a man cautiously comes to meet them. He is a member of the Nez Perce tribe. Clark and his men are conducted to a great lodge (tipi) of their chief. However, once again, good fortune meets the Corps as they learn that the chief and all his warriors left three days ago to war on a neighboring tribe and won’t return for about two weeks! Clark is greeted by a few old men and great numbers of fearful and apprehensive women who bring them dried buffalo meat, dried salmon, soup and bread made of camas roots. Clark and the men “eat hartily” and Clark gives them a few small trinkets he is carrying. Clark and his recon team are then taken to a second village two miles west where they “were treated kindly and continued with them all night.”

Meanwhile, the main party arrives at the hanging horse and note left by Clark. The horsemeat “made a hearty meal…much to the comfort of our hungry stomachs.” Lewis learns that one of the horses bearing many of his valuables and all of his winter clothing is missing. Lewis dispatches two of his best woodsmen to go back and find the horse.

Have you ever eaten too much too fast after a fast? The consequences can be tough, especially if the food is a type your body is not familiar with. Clark’s last entry in his journal this day reads, “I find myself feeling verry unwell all evening from eateing the fish & roots too freely.”

My guess is that his stomach was rumbling, gurgling and acting like a small version of Mt. St. Helens!

Yet no matter their conditions, the Captains fulfill the work of their mission. Clark’s maps are detailed and Lewis makes detailed notes of several new species of birds this very day. It is true, isn’t it, that the calling of our work can many times help us move through hardship.

If ever there was a motto for the Corps of Discovery it has to be “Proceed On!” Through all things the men set their hearts on the Pacific Ocean by land and were unshakable in their pursuit. So far they have proceeded on more than a thousand miles against the current up a mighty river, through a long cold winter, a month long portage around not one, but five, great waterfalls, through rattlesnake infested cliffs and now to the end of the most dangerous portion of their journey. Portages, hard work upstream, hunting, self-sufficiency and traversing hills were all expected. They never expected the height and breadth the Rocky Mountains presented. Yet they proceed on daily and exit them still living. As we pause to consider their work, I am mindful that still no one has died and they have been met with caution, kindness and generosity at just about every turn.

Proceed on, press on, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed in us.”

A Sprint, Marathon or Expedition

Journal 2005 09 19

Clark and his six men press on. Proceeding up Hungry Creek they take the “long way” around. Clark estimates it doubles the distance. Much to their relief, Clark’s party notices the air temperature warming as they make the long descent to the broad plain seen from the mountain heights. This hunting and recon party finally comes across some game, a wild horse! They shoot it, eat “a fine breakfast”, and hang the meat for the main party.

Lewis and the main party are struggling to continue. Dysentery, boils and other skin problems from malnutrition are beginning to add to the burdens the men and horses are bearing. Lewis spots the broad prairie Clark saw yesterday. He estimates it at sixty miles. Old Toby says they will be there tomorrow. Regardless, the sight brings hope to the men that their extreme struggle will soon end. Lewis records in his notes that he has seen eight specific species of pine trees during this push through these “emmence” mountains.

Push on, press on, in their own words, “proceed on” describes the effort of these iron tough expeditioners. And remember, a teen-age mother and her infant were traveling with the main party! Lewis must have reminded himself frequently of his words recorded before they left the Shoshone camp that if women and children successfully negotiated this route twice yearly certainly he and his soldiers could.

Does this struggle to advance, to “press on” bring perspective to the Apostle Paul’s admonition, “I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” I usually think of a sprint, of a runner pressing his chest forward to be the first to break the tape of the finish line. However, placed in context, isn’t the prize awarded at the end of our lives? And the prize is that heavenly call to life in Jesus Christ.

Today’s journal recorded two-hundred years ago serves as a great reminder to the promise of suffering that Jesus spoke of and Paul frequently pointed to as indicators of achieving that goal of imitating Paul who is imitating Jesus.

I do not like running. If I have to run, give me a basketball game that is made up of a series of small sprints. If like me, you think Paul is running a single one hundred yard dash and getting a gold medal and crown for his work, think again.

Our “race” really is a journey, an expedition. Have you seen the movie, “Hidalgo” about a man and his horse renown for winning long distance races? The movie records a race that becomes a struggle of proportions he has never known. He and his horse are tested to the limits of their abilities and must receive miraculous help to finish and win. Once dead and now alive, they run bareback and with a new freedom to the finish line. And we are no different. Paul tells us to run in such a way as to win the prize, with freedom in joy.

You can win the prize, the high calling of Jesus Christ, and run the race with the knowledge that though it may require your life, you will and have already won if you have set aside all that would hinder you from full pursuit of the One who holds the prize.

Hungry Creek

Journal 2005 09 18
Hungry Creek

Lewis writes, “We dined & suped on a skant proportion of portable soupe, a few canesters of which, a little bears oil and about 20lbs. of candles form our stock of provision, the only resources being our guns & packhorses. the first is but a poor dependance in our present situation where there is nothing upon earth exept ourselves and a few small pheasants, small grey Squirrels, and a blue bird…”

Clark writes, “The want of provisions together with the dificuely of passing those emence mountains dampened the Sperits of the party which induced us to resort to Some plan of reviving their Sperits. I deturmined to take a party of the hunters and proceed on in advance to Some leavel Country, where there was game kill Some meat & Send it back,…”

The Captains make another bold decision. They don’t record anything other than what we just read above, but even the horses were wearing out in the struggle to move through the mountains in the cold and snow short of proper nutrition. So they made a decision to send Clark and six hunters ahead to find game and the end of these “emence mountians.”

Clark and the hunters, unburdened by carrying cargo, cover ground much faster than the main party can. At twenty miles, Clark is able to see a broad plain a long distance off.  Clark records, “Saw but little sign of deer and nothing else, much falling timber, made 32 miles and Encamped on a bold running Creek...which I call Hungry Creek as at that place we had nothing else to eate.”

The men were carrying some soup concoction that was purchased in Philadelphia and would be the equivalent of our modern freeze dried food and power bars. Even though the men were hungry and declared the meat of the colts as “fine” they never ever declared this soup to be anything other than “barely tolerable.”

A high mountain plain on the horizon. Inspiration to continue on. In a malnourished state it could have a mirage-like effect, giving the men a false sense of provision. That promise of game on the plain must have lifted their “Sperits” and eased their hunger at Hungry Creek.

Have you ever needed to divide your efforts in an effort to survive? Division can be risky. There is strength in numbers. There can also be strength in small, swift units as proven by our Navy Seals. Clark and his six men make up that “recon team” today.

Vision and provision. We ask for it every day when we pray. These men were living it out. They were in obvious need of provision. The advance party was sent out to advance and bring vision. The Captains hoped that this party would also restore hope to the men.

Vision; “Thy Kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Provision; “Give us this day our daily bread.” We are no different than people two-thousand years ago or even two-hundred years ago. Lord, please give us Heaven and Earth this day!

Covering the Familiar

Journal 2005 09 16
Covering the Familiar

Ever looked out the window in the middle of the pre-dawn hours of the morning to find snow falling? The reaction in our house most of the times was “Yippie, no school today!”

Today, Clark records that snow started falling three hours before daylight and continued all day. Contrast that with the expected beautiful weather being experienced in the same spot two hundred years later. Before the day was complete the men were marching through six to eight inches of snow. If you’ve seen or read any accounts of the Corps of Discovery you have heard William Clark quoted as follows, “…I have been wet and as cold in every part as I ever was in my life, indeed I was at one time fearful my feet would freeze in the thin mockersons which I wore,…” Clark also notes that the trail they were following became extremely difficult to find as the snow covered the ground. The familiar became hidden and hindered their progress. The men charged with finding and following the trail discovered they could look to the trees along the trail and find “rub” marks made by packs the Indians used on their horses. At midday the party found grass for the horses to graze on and built fires for the men warm themselves. Clark and another soldier set out to cover the next six miles as fast as they could to prepare a warm and watered camp for those who followed. They found a small spot near a stream with barely enough level ground for all to sleep. Large fires were built and awaited with warmth for the main party that followed. They arrived at dusk “verry cold and much fatigued.”

Earlier in the day the cold exposed a problem with the flint on Clark’s rifle and he was not able to get off a single shot at four deer he saw. The men repaired it later that night. Another colt was slaughtered and all “thought it fine meat.” Once again, the best seasoning of food is often the hunger of the diner.

Have you ever lost your way? Not been able to find the trail? Had the familiar give way to the unfamiliar? I have. It is disorienting at best and brings fear and panic at worst.

Have your sins been “washed white as snow?” The familiar gave way to the unfamiliar and you had to find a new method of finding your way in this world. God expands our vision. In today’s example, He would have us to look above the dirt and see the movement of substance through the trees. The rubbing of packs on the bark of trees became the new indicator of prior travel through this small piece of earth.

Jesus admonished the leaders of His time because they could read the signs of nature regarding the wind and weather but they couldn’t read spiritual signs. He was angry because His expectations were that they could read spiritual signs. Can we? Do we understand He expects us to?

We understand that He covers, hides and impedes our old way. We need to allow Him to train us with new vision to see and read that which we didn’t before. Lost your way? Stop and expand your vision for signs of those who have gone your way before. Then proceed on in faith confident He has walked this path and prepared the way for you.

Early Winter

Journal 2005 09 15
Early Winter

“…we proceeded on up the mountain Steep & rugged as usial, more timber near the top, when we arrived at the top…we could find no water and Concluded to Camp and make use of the Snow we found on top to cook the remns. of our Colt & make our Supe…”

There is a chill in our air here at sea level overnight. Transport yourself into the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho and imagine an early snow blowing in. That was the plight of the Corp of Discovery in 1805. The extended forecast for these same Idaho mountains this year is clear and hot. Don’t you think the men would have rather had clear and warm instead of cold and snow? Lewis described this evening as “verry cold and cloudy”.

Circumstances are always beyond our control. We attempt to change them as best we can, but we are like fleas on at elephant at best in our attempts to change climate and the forces of nature. We control fire in our homes and call it a furnace or heater. We put heaters in cars early on. We added air conditioning to our homes for additional respite from the heat. We added air conditioning to our cars to extend that comfort and retreat from the heat of nature.

Some have even gone as far as erecting a large bubble and attempting to totally control their world. But at some point, no matter how sophisticated the technology, everyone has to come back out into the real world where it rains on the just and the unjust.

Food, water, heat and shelter continue to be the basic needs of our fragile human race. The captains recognize at the end of this day that their provision is in the snow and the remains of the colt they carry. So they stop, build fire from the timber and melt snow for water.

And as can happen so often the very thing that gives them life, water in this case, comes to them when they don’t want it. Snow begins to fall overnight and sets a pattern in place that will last longer than the men care to think about.

We seek the mountains for refuge and renewal. We always speak of “mountaintop” experiences and the spiritual renewal they bring. These hardy travelers saw these mountains as a formidable foe standing between them and their intended destination. They were not thinking of any wonderful spiritual experiences. They simply wanted to live through the assault on their strength and resolve that these foreboding foes presented.

Moses went to the mountain and found fire. A fire that was God that changed him and tempered him to stand strong in the face of his foes. These men went to the mountains and found hardship. They found a place of resolve they didn’t know existed. In this manner they were tempered and by their weakness made stronger.

We say we want the mountaintop experience. Do we really? What if you are met with hardship? Struggle so difficult it reaches for your very life? What if you find the fire of God that demands your very life? Are you ready? One thing we know for sure. The mountain will change you. How it changes you rests with the God found in the fire.

Colt Killed Creek

Journal 2005 09 14
Colt Killed Creek

Colt Killed Creek. Horsemeat. Americans don’t like horsemeat. Today after traveling seventeen miles the Corps camps and kills one of the colts to eat for dinner. The Captains mark the occasion by naming the creek for their actions. That name holds today.

Lewis describes today’s work this way, “The Mountains which we passed to day much worst than yesterday the last excessively bad & thickly Strowed with falling timber & Pine Spruce fur Hackmatak & Tamerack, Steep & Stoney our men and horses much fatigued.”

The fact that precipitation was falling as rain and hail in the valleys and as snow on the mountaintops must have contributed to their fatigue. The Corps was in that dangerous arena of hypothermia. Most people associate hypothermia with the frigid conditions of snow and ice. While a really low temperature is always a threat to hypothermia, experts and I agree that the most dangerous threat of hypothermia occurs in the conditions of this day of travel. Cold, barely above freezing and wet. Deceptive to the ones facing the conditions. I’ve been a little hypothermic in similar conditions right here in Bellevue. I was working outside on a rainy fall day with the temperatures around 35 to 40. As long as I was moving and working hard I generated body heat. When I stopped I quickly chilled and shivered and could feel my movements and judgment waning. I had a warm truck to climb into and recover. These guys must have been tough. And they must have also been excellent fire builders.

What are the conditions like in your life today? Are you in danger and don’t know it? Are you working hard thinking you are pleasing God when He is calling you to come in out of the rain while He feeds and warms the core of your being?

If the work of your life puts you in a place where the rain and temperature of the weather are slowing sapping your life and energy stop and take cover under the wings of the Almighty. He will restore you. He might even have horsemeat for you for dinner. Americans don’t like horsemeat. And to that I can only add, “Even the bitter tastes sweet to the hungry.” Proverbs 27:7

Lolo Hot Springs

Journal 2005 09 13
Lolo Hot Springs

The journey has been hard. This portion has been some of the hardest. Yesterday the way was so remote, rugged and difficult that camp wasn’t made until eight pm. Many of the men did not get to camp until two hours later. A deer and a handful of grouse and pheasants make up their rations for today. Early in the trip the Captains had forbidden the men to spend ammunition harvesting birds. Except as now when birds where a primary source of meat.

The men are exhausted. We forget when we travel a trail through the mountains today that a crew has gone ahead and leveled a path, shored up washouts, made culverts and in many places built boardwalks. Our way in the woods is easy by comparison. These men spent much of their day crawling over blowdowns. Trees that had fallen and lay across the trail in many places like pick-up-sticks. If you’ve ever been off trail in the mountains and spent much time crossing blowdowns it is indeed tiring.

Two miles out this morning Clark followed some obvious game trails to what we now call Lolo Hot Springs. Today it is a commercial venture with a pool. Two hundred years ago the development consisted of the Indians placing rocks to make a soaking pool. Clark notes that the water is so hot as to be “near to boiling.” No mention is made of the men taking any time to stop and bathe in the springs. I know what I would be doing. I’d be rejoicing and soaking for as long as the Captains would allow. But it sounds to me like the men did not take this luxury and kept moving through what so many of them called “these terrible mountains.” Several trails left in different directions from the springs and Old Toby went three tough miles up a wrong one before realizing his mistake.

Captain Lewis and several of the men had stayed behind to round up several of the horses that had wandered from camp overnight. They hadn’t reached the hot springs yet and Clark sent two men back to help with the horses and guide them on the correct trail.

The men don’t know it, but with the perfect vision afforded by time, we see their journey down this river drainage will lead them along the best path to the Columbia River. They do not know this. If we were making this trip today we would have turned west at Lolo, Montana on Highway 12 and been to Lolo Hot Springs in less than an hour at a leisurely pace driving a car. Over mountains and through valleys is a hard and slow way to travel. Hard work is the fuel of exploration.

And that is what is on my heart and in my mind once more this morning as we learn from the example of these explorers. Hard work is fuel. Hard work is like gas in the tank. Hard work is wood to the fire. Hard work when focused on a mission is not drudgery. Ask any athlete training to compete to be the best. Ask any soldier training to win every battle over his enemy. Hard work is good.

If our daily work has any form of drudgery then our mission is murky. Pray for clear vision. Look at your fuel supply. If it is empty, hard work will fill it. Hard work allows you to complete the mission you’ve been given. Focus to mission brings determination, drives out complaining and brings meaning to the effort the mission requires. Work hard!

The Crooked Path

Journal 2005 09 09
The Crooked Path

The storm has passed and the weather is once again “fair and worm”. The Corps is traveling north through the Bitterroot Valley along what is today’s Bitterroot River.

Old Toby points out a jump off point that leads east to the Gates of the Rocky Mountains about thirty miles below the point. Thirty miles and less than five days vs. many hard miles and fifty two days! The travelers make five more miles and when Old Toby informs the Captain Lewis they must leave the river and turn west Lewis tells the men to make camp. They have made about nineteen miles this day. Because the weather is fair and Captain Lewis desires to fix this point on their map with certainty he informs the men of his intention to rest as he makes the necessary celestial observations to fix the latitude and longitude of this spot. Lewis calls it “Traveler’s Rest”, a name which stuck and is a much visited spot today.

Even though it is recorded as simply part of the dialogue with Old Toby without any comment as to their bad luck in not taking the shortcut, can you imagine the emotional response to the news that the expedition could have been in this spot almost two months earlier?

I’m pondering my response to this news two hundred years later. My first thought is, “Why didn’t anyone tell us about this shortcut?” My second thought is, “We could have been to the Pacific Ocean and a good part of the way back in fifty two days!” No record of any missed opportunity, misfortune or bad luck. A tribute to the mindset of all the men of the Corps of Discovery. A continuing example to all today.

“Consider the work of God; for who can make straight what He has made crooked?”
(Ecclesiastes 7:13) God has a predetermined path for your mission. The right path is not always the easiest path. Human wisdom says take the straight way, the level way, the easy way. Jesus says, “Follow Me.” His way. A light unto our path and lamp upon our feet. He marks the way He has for us to go and then lights the way.

The question for us today is which way is the right way? The shortest path or the pre-ordained path? The answer lies in another question. Do you want to walk in the darkness of the unknown or in the illumination provided by His light and His lamp?

I hope the answer is as simple as it appears. Let’s choose His light and His lamp and “proceed on” with no regrets no matter how crooked or straight the path. If we are following Jesus it will always be the right path.

Look To The Hills From Which Comes My Strength

Journal 2005 09 04
Look To The Hills From Which Comes My Strength

The Continental Divide is like a spine running from Canada to Mexico dividing the flow of water to either the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. For several days now the Corps has been traveling mostly north along the western side of the divide along a branch of the Salmon River as it works its way to the Snake River that flows into the Columbia River.

Captain Lewis has given himself to calling the rivers and streams the waters of the Columbia River. This is assumptive on his part. It is correct, but he had not discovered that to be true yet.

The going is tough. All the men record this section of the journey as some of the toughest ever undertaken by horses and men. The trail is so steep and the rocks so loose that horses are in constant danger of falling. Several do and miraculously are uninjured. The cargo is not so fortunate. The last thermometer is broken in one of these accidents.

The Captains note the temperature by observation now. Like our current weather, change is felt in the air. The evenings are cooler and even sunny days begin to take on an underlying chill in spite of delightful weather. And in what the eyes of history record as a precursor of things to come a storm has blown through that brought frozen mornings, two inches of snow followed by sleet as mild weather returned.

Today, the Corps entered land where the Flathead Indian nation lived. They “smoked pipe” and made peace with this tribe. The nation consisted of about eighty men, four hundred women and children and five hundred horses. The guttural language spoken by these people fascinates the men. The men relate the sounds as similar to the guttural sounds made in the Welsh language. An “urban rumor” of this era is that a party of Welsh immigrants came to North America and became one of the Indian tribes. All the men wonder if this tribe would be those people. The story is not true, but the language tickles everything in their imaginations regarding this fable.

In reflecting on the work and advance of the Corps over the past few days the words “mountaintop experience” keeps coming to mind. How many of us speak of enduring the valleys for the reward of the mountaintop? And if you’ve been fortunate enough to experience the view from the mountaintop it is reward for hard work. These explorers have been living on the mountaintop for several weeks now and they are working hard. Life is easier in the valley. But for some reason our hearts and spirits are renewed on the mountaintop as our bodies are replenished and restored in the bounty of the valley.

“Look to the hills from which comes my strength,” declares the psalmist. Strength, inner strength, comes from gaining elevation. Gaining elevation leads us to the rock that is higher than any other. From there we can gain God’s perspective. In Him we find strength. “Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.” Followers of Christ have taken comfort and found strength from these words for centuries. Strength for the spirit is found in the leanness of altitude. Strength to complete the mission is found in the abundance of the valley. Don’t dwell too long in either. Live in the valley too long and you’ll get fat. Live in the heights too long and no work will be done. Seek the Living God on high and let Him send you into the valley with a mission to accomplish.