1596 Kept In the Dark

Our God is not only the God of miracles, but he is the God of the unexpected. The God of surprises. The God of unfolding goodness you could have never imagined on your own.

But, in order to experience this goodness, faith will be required. A strong stomach to handle the ups and downs that lead to the destination you do not yet know. God wants to take you on an adventure, but that adventure will include an element of uncertainty that will make you highly uncomfortable.

Will you still show up for it? Or will you sit it out?

Sometimes God doesn’t reveal all the details to us because he knows we would dismiss ourselves from the opportunity if we knew. He keeps the details in the dark, only showing us one step at a time, so we are willing to take that step even though the journey awaiting is harder than we anticipate. So, our loving and all-knowing, good, good father withholds some of the information so you will still show up. He doesn’t want you to miss what he has for you, so some things will just be kept secret until you step into them.

Kinda like my real life experiences yesterday. Y’all, it’s story time …

I’m here on the island of Oahu hosting the BIG Life Hawaii Retreat. Yesterday morning was our sunrise hike and mountain top worship experience. Sounds fabulous, right? You would sign up for that, wouldn’t you? You would want to be there for that.

We arrive to the trail head at the butt crack of dawn. 5:30 am. Do you know how dark it is at 5:30 am here? They say it’s darkest before dawn … well, it was before dawn and it was dark. As we get out of our cars, my retreat girls begin asking their very justified questions about this hike. How hard is it? How muddy is it? How long is it? How are we going to see?

These were all details I did not know. However, I had been told by several locals this was the trail we must hike for the ultimate sunrise destination. Lanaki Pillbox. They said we could surely do it. I believed them.

The trail begins in a residential hillside neighborhood. It looks very unassuming. Low threat. Unimpressive. Steps off the neighborhood street, we find a steep incline at the beginning of a small trail climbing rocks. There were ropes.

If you’re new to climbing, the sight of ropes is a sign. That sign is, “THIS ISN’T GOING TO BE EASY.” I think to myself, “Pamela, this may not have been the hike to have chosen for these girls. What have you gotten into here?”

The questions continue. Is this going to get harder? How much more are we going to climb? Woah, can we really do this?

My answer … I don’t know. Let’s take the next step and see.

With only the light of our cell phones, we can see nothing but the next step in front of us. And while sometimes on our hands and knees bear crawling, we were able to take that next step. We hoisted the one in front of us, and reached for the one behind us. Our progress was slow, and the dark remained.

We couldn’t see to the left or right. That was pure darkness. We could only see the rock in front of us, and the souls on the journey with us.

What had I gotten us into? My sense of adventure sometimes outweighs the desire of those with me to endure hard things.

We kept climbing. It was hard.

Then, the sun began to rise. The break of dawn. The most brilliant deep orange filled the sky just as we reached our first peak. We could finally see where we were and what we had just done.

And let me tell you something,