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.