Scott Forsythe, our Educational & Ministry Development Coordinator, guided a trip in Arizona. He described a part of his trip that showed what going beyond our limits and how the Lord manages our steps looks like.

“Last week, I had the privilege to guide Concordia Lutheran’s eighth-grade trip to Arizona.  On one of our hikes in Sedona, AZ, I took the group on a little more difficult trail up the side of Bell Rock.  At one point we came to a spot where each person would have to get across a several-foot deep and about a four-foot-wide crevice to go from one rock to another.  For many of the students, they were able to jump across with ease.  However, there were about six students and one teacher that would not jump out of their fear of heights and fear of falling.

With those individuals, I would have to straddle between the two sides to help each navigate getting from one side to the other.  At the very end, there was a student that got to the point of shimmying down the rock to be helped across when she froze with fear and would not move at all.  After a couple of people tried to convince her she could make it, she refused to move and began to cry.  Eventually, I was able to position myself in such a way that she was able to use me like a rock and step on me to get on across.  Once she was across her classmates cheered and congratulated her for making it.

After that, we hiked to the next point where each person had the more difficult option to climb about eight feet straight up to the next ledge or they could walk around to the side and take a relatively easy path up to the next level.  Every student and teacher decided to tackle the challenge of going straight up the rocks on the side, rather than take the easier path around to the side.  That included the young lady that just a few minutes earlier was paralyzed by her fear of falling and getting hurt.  Her teacher and I stood there and admired her courage to tackle the challenge.

Once we all reached that next level of the climb, we paused and talked for a few minutes about how the previous experiences we just had were just like life.  All through life there will be goals, dreams, and destinations that we will try to get to, with many of them being God-given destinations for our lives.  At some points, there will come times when we are confronted with obstacles that cause us to fear going any further with those pursuits.  That obstacle will bring some type of fear as it is an unknown that we have never faced before.  It is at that point that we have the option to allow fear to cripple us or we can recognize the fear for what it is, and decide how to navigate it to accomplish the goals before us.  After all of that, every person on the hike could not wait to go higher and experience even more challenges.  It ended up being a great life lesson for every one of us.

That day, several students and a teacher walked away knowing that they could accomplish more than they ever thought possible.”

Proverbs 16:9 states, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”

The path with the Lord is not always obvious or easy. There will be times where our limits are pushed. Our fears seem too powerful. This is the beauty of having a relationship with the Lord. He always is in our corner, our ever present help.

The Lord is our firm foundation, our constant, and maintains steadfast. He will call us to step or even leap, but let us take courage as He walks beside us through every part.