a meeting in the mountains

Today I returned from a weekend trip to Chattanooga, TN. Caroline, Leigh, and I traveled to go visit family and friends on the mountain. However, I spent most of the weekend with some buddies from Covenant College on Lookout Mnt. The weekend started off terrible, not only was there crazy traffic on I-75 North, but I felt totally alone in Anna's group of friends. Anna is one of my dearest friends, she knows all of my sin and struggles, I truly cannot hide from her. Anyways, a lot of the camp counselors from this past summers Ridge Haven Camp in Brevard, NC came up to hang out with each other. Now let me explain why this was upsetting. Last year about this same time I was applying for a job at Ridge Haven as a counselor, I was pretty sure that I was going to get the job, but God did not will it. I'm not going to lie, it hurt really bad to be refused and also to have your best friend be accepted. It cuts deep and makes me feel spiritually inept. So being around all of the counselors and all their inside jokes and reminiscences of the past summer was incredibly hard because I wanted so desperately to have been a part of them. Anyways, Friday night I went to be crying, not just because I felt alone, but because I think I just wanted to be over it, over the self-pitying.

Saturday morning God woke me with a beautiful sunrise over the Appalachians. He is the true artist of our lives. Well I decided that I could not longer wallow in my self-pity and doubt an suck it up. We all ended up going to Cloud Land Canyon on the backside of Lookout. There we hiked down into the canyon and saw a small but beautiful water fall, it was so tranquilly. Later when we hiked back up to the ridge Brooks and David Scott broke out the guitar and bongo for some singing of some of my favorite hymns. It was so beautiful to just sit in God's wonderful and perfect creation singing His praises. People would stop and look at us funny or sit and just listen. At one point a father and young son came and sat down for a while. It was beautiful to just watch them interact and listen to the great words of truth in the hymns. Also, a group of three guys were looming a couple of yards away, at first I thought nothing of them, but when we stopped to take a break one of them approached me at first I was wondering who is this? It ended up being Chris White a guy I was acquaintance's with in high school. We never really hung out or anything. Anyways, this is where God was so great, Chris told me he was in a halfway house Lafayette for drug recovery (he had struggled with addiction and possession for a long time), but here is the amazing part. He had become a Christian. This seems so amazing because he was the last person I would expect, because the last time I had content with him he was running as far away from God as he could. It was just so great to see the redemptive power of God to bluntly, it really broke my heart. We talked to Chris and his buddies for while about the program and sang a few hymns. They had to leave quickly because one of their friends was graduating from the program that night. But we got to pray with them and for them before they left, it was the body of Christ coming together in such a real way. O man God is sooooo good.

So I guess I have learned even more so this past weekend that even when we feel like we are in the depths of woe, God turns every sorrow to praise for himself.