In July, Scott and I went to Shenandoah National Park. He found a sunrise hike that he thought I would love. I was so excited, until I read the blog where he learned about the hike. The photographer mentioned the dreaded word… bears! I almost backed out of the sunrise hike, I am so afraid of bears. But I decided to be ‘bear prepared,’ bear spray, headlamps and flashlights. I was determined not to let fear stop me.

Early Saturday morning came and I was excited, until we stepped onto the trail. It was like a tunnel through the trees and it was pitch black dark. I had a hard time making it up the first small incline because fear was making it hard to breathe. But, I put my head down and put one foot in front of the other. At one point I said, “This really would be better, if I could just see a little further.” Scott laughed and said, “These lights are lighting up about 100 feet in front of us!”

Before long, with no bear encounters, we reached the summit and experienced a sunrise like I have never seen before. It was breathtakingly spectacular and I was so thankful that I didn’t let fear steal that moment. But as we hiked on, after the sunrise, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I wanted more light, even when I could see so far ahead of me.

I’m not sure what it is about hiking, but that seems to be where I learn so much about how I live my life. And that’s when I realized, I can’t stand what’s hidden in the dark. I want to have some idea of what lies ahead and if I don’t, I’m afraid.

As I was talking to Scott about this, he said, “So you trust God best when you can see what’s ahead?” Ouch… who said anything about trusting or not trusting God? But his question got to the root of my struggle. I feel like I can walk any path, if I just know what the path is like and I can see the dangers ahead. It’s not enough to be wise and to prepare, I want to see far ahead. I don’t like walking into the unknown. But then I’m trusting myself, not my Abba Father, who is far more capable of caring for me than I am myself.

True, abiding trust always carries uncertainty. But I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, no matter what might be in front of me on the path, God has me firmly in the palm of His hand. It might not always be the outcome I want, but I will never walk alone.

Later in the hike, we came across an unexpected rock slide that was covering about 30 yards of the trail. I looked in front of me, then down the steep hill of rocks and I didn’t want to cross it. But I took a deep breath, put my eyes on Scott and watched where he stepped. When I was too uncertain, I sat down and crawled across a bigger rock. Scott coached me the entire way and taking one step at a time, I made it just fine.

That’s what my Abba Father does, when I don’t know where to step, He will show me, He will lead me through the challenges that I don’t know are in front of me and He will encourage me every step of the way. The best way to prepare for the journey through life is to prioritize growing my relationship with HIm… As a dear friend used to say, “You can’t trust who you don’t know.”