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.