Dearest Pioneer Trek,
How I long to be in your presence again. It has been three long years since we last walked together down long, hot, dusty trails. And it will be another 15 months until we meet again. I look forward to our reunion, though I know it will be sweet agony.
I remember vividly the first time we met. It was the summer of 2005. I had been invited to simply watch you from afar with another group who had the privilege of experiencing your glorious trails and hearing the stories of your past struggles and triumphs. I felt like an outsider, a window shopper, a third wheel because we had not been properly introduced. You barely knew I was there that summer. Though to you my presence was obscured, I began to love you from the distance in which I was forced to maintain.
Our next encounter was a year later. I had been preparing all those months to see you again. Let me rephrase that: not just to see you, but to be enveloped in your strong, yet loving arms; to finally meet you, face to face. I had ignorantly thought our encounter would be on my own terms. How little I still knew about you. I prayed much over what we would do side by side in our three day adventure. It was too little time to really come to know someone as complex and multi-faceted as you. My innocence made me believe I could bring more to the relationship than you alone would provide. But now I can never return to those days of ignorant bliss. In spite of all the long hours I spent in imagining, developing and then implementing my planned hardships, you had your own trials waiting for us on the trail; trials that grew my testimony and faith in Jesus Christ.
It was four long years until we could embrace again. I was wiser and thought I knew you better. But our meeting place changed from the gentle cool streams and quiet hills with soft whispering breezes to the rugged, dry, devil weed infested desert. You had more to teach me. I had more to learn. Just as a child humbly submits to their mother’s will, so did I submit to your attempt to rescue my rebellious soul. There was no struggle this time-around to force unnatural circumstances on our time together. I was well aware that you were completely in charge. I could only make a temporary paper shell for the greater plan you had in mind.
What a master teacher you are! Though you are dumb, nonetheless, your voice is heard in my burning bosom. Your lessons are received through my aching, tired muscles. Through the blisters and despite the chafing, your love is felt in every fiber of my being. If it weren’t for you, I couldn’t fathom even in the smallest percent what Francis Webster meant when he said this about you, “Every one of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives, for we became acquainted with him in our extremities.” I do not pretend to have a complete understanding of this heartfelt statement, nor will I ever. Your trails and trials in my day are not as physically driven. What I do know to be true is that my travails mostly take place in the secret recesses of my heart. The struggles I fight are with myself in the overcoming of spiritual weaknesses. You have helped me burn a love of my Savior deep into my soul, of which I hope to pass on to my children, and my children’s children.
I am different because of us. I am a better person because of us. I have become more, because of us.
All my love and affection,
Dana
How I long to be in your presence again. It has been three long years since we last walked together down long, hot, dusty trails. And it will be another 15 months until we meet again. I look forward to our reunion, though I know it will be sweet agony.
I remember vividly the first time we met. It was the summer of 2005. I had been invited to simply watch you from afar with another group who had the privilege of experiencing your glorious trails and hearing the stories of your past struggles and triumphs. I felt like an outsider, a window shopper, a third wheel because we had not been properly introduced. You barely knew I was there that summer. Though to you my presence was obscured, I began to love you from the distance in which I was forced to maintain.
Our next encounter was a year later. I had been preparing all those months to see you again. Let me rephrase that: not just to see you, but to be enveloped in your strong, yet loving arms; to finally meet you, face to face. I had ignorantly thought our encounter would be on my own terms. How little I still knew about you. I prayed much over what we would do side by side in our three day adventure. It was too little time to really come to know someone as complex and multi-faceted as you. My innocence made me believe I could bring more to the relationship than you alone would provide. But now I can never return to those days of ignorant bliss. In spite of all the long hours I spent in imagining, developing and then implementing my planned hardships, you had your own trials waiting for us on the trail; trials that grew my testimony and faith in Jesus Christ.
It was four long years until we could embrace again. I was wiser and thought I knew you better. But our meeting place changed from the gentle cool streams and quiet hills with soft whispering breezes to the rugged, dry, devil weed infested desert. You had more to teach me. I had more to learn. Just as a child humbly submits to their mother’s will, so did I submit to your attempt to rescue my rebellious soul. There was no struggle this time-around to force unnatural circumstances on our time together. I was well aware that you were completely in charge. I could only make a temporary paper shell for the greater plan you had in mind.
What a master teacher you are! Though you are dumb, nonetheless, your voice is heard in my burning bosom. Your lessons are received through my aching, tired muscles. Through the blisters and despite the chafing, your love is felt in every fiber of my being. If it weren’t for you, I couldn’t fathom even in the smallest percent what Francis Webster meant when he said this about you, “Every one of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives, for we became acquainted with him in our extremities.” I do not pretend to have a complete understanding of this heartfelt statement, nor will I ever. Your trails and trials in my day are not as physically driven. What I do know to be true is that my travails mostly take place in the secret recesses of my heart. The struggles I fight are with myself in the overcoming of spiritual weaknesses. You have helped me burn a love of my Savior deep into my soul, of which I hope to pass on to my children, and my children’s children.
I am different because of us. I am a better person because of us. I have become more, because of us.
All my love and affection,
Dana