Could You Trust Him with Your Life?

Journal 2005 10 03

The weather is markedly better. Cool nights and mornings, warm to hot days. The men are still mostly ill. A handful hunt bringing in but few deer. Not enough to feed the entire party. So, once more, a horse is killed for meat. Salmon and roots are acquired from the Nez Perce via trade. Clark notes that they are out of provisions.

Summer officially turned to fall over a week ago and ducks are seen flying south along the river. These men knew how to read the signs of nature and knew they still had miles to go before arriving at the mouth of the Columbia River. They just spent much of their strength prevailing through the snow and cold. I can’t imagine that the prospect of continuing in more cold and snow held any appeal for the men. They wanted to get downriver now!

Work was proceeding on canoes at Canoe Camp by those who were able. The men had learned to burn out the inside of the logs to speed up the process of hollowing out logs for canoes. Most were still sick. Chief among them, Meriwether Lewis is as stricken with severe intestinal problems as anyone in camp. Captain Lewis emerges from the mountains and something changes in him. William Clark will complete most journal entries from now until New Year’s Day 1806. Great speculation still exists regarding this long gap in Lewis’ unique recording of this mission. Lost journals and severe depression lead the pack.

William Clark rises to the challenge and fulfills the trust and friendship that caused Meriwether Lewis’ to seek him out for the journey. William Clark has been described as a man who lived his live “from strength to strength.” He always rose to the occasion and filled the call of mission with excellence.

I wrote last time about working in God’s strength or our own. When we proceed from “strength to strength” we can only have one goal if we believe that we are ultimately following the path God has laid out for us to travel. “They go from strength to strength, appearing in Zion before God.”(Psalms 84:7)

Mission success now lays on the back of William Clark. I speculate that Lewis had chosen his good friend for just a time as this. Knowing he could trust his friend to be strong when he was weak. Lewis was not just weak he was immobilized by dysentery. History tells us Lewis was disappointed that he would not be able to report to President Jefferson that a navigable waterway existed between the east and west boundaries of North America. In many ways Lewis saw this as failure. I don’t believe William Clark ever had that reaction to their discovery of the barely conquerable mountains that rose as the great divider of east and west.

Lewis’ foresight that this mission required two men of equal authority to be completed was manifested many times during this expedition. Here exists a clear example of one holding up the other during a time of distress. King Solomon knew this principle and preserved its wisdom for our benefit. “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he does not have another to help him. Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one be warm alone? And if one overthrows him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)

Close your eyes and imagine you’ve been called to complete a similar expedition into unknown lands, faced with many unknowns certain of one thing; hardship and death would be your constant traveling companions. Who would you ask to join you in command? Would you, could you, trust your choice with your life?

“Now to Him being able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you before His glory without blemish, with unspeakable joy; to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty and might and authority, even now and forever. Amen.”(Jude 1:24-25)

I want the One who is able to keep me without stumbling and present me before His glory without blemish filled with unspeakable joy. How about you?

Proceeding on.