God is great

Our trip was tremendous! We were cold, exhausted, tired, hungry, dehydrated, suffering from altitude sickness and nauseous most of the time. The food was terrible and so was the coffee. At one time our bodies stopped generating their own heat so we spent twelve hours in our sleeping bags trying to raise our body temperature. Other times we would take a step and suddenly fall four feet through the snow and have our snowshoes tangled in trees and lodged under boulders. There were times when we were lost and dropped our packs in an effort to hike up ridges and through shrubs to orient ourselves. At all times our feet were wet and cold (in fact our boots would freeze like an ice cube every night). Today, I still do not have feeling in the tips of my big toes. For days we hiked in snow that would not hold our weight and we would sink a foot every step we took.

The snow was too deep that for two days we had to make our own trials. That is when your Boy Scout orientation skills come in handy. We hiked through forest, dodging branches; we hopped from lake to lake trying to keep track of where we were; we traversed down double diamonds runs in the middle of Avalanche Ally as the sun set; we walked on (semi) frozen lakes and over snow covered streams.

AND I loved every minute of it (well ... most minutes). What I saw for five days, I will take with me always. The majesty of our God is unimaginable. Why put yourself through something like that, you might ask. What drives me is that God created these mountains, trees, lakes and streams for a reason. To display his glory. To show he is powerful and majestic and wonderful. It is almost as if there is an additional book of the Bible up in these mountains that declares how great God is. I am willing to work a little bit in order to get a chance to read it (of course it helps that I love the challenge too).

So I report back to you that our God is great indeed, for I have seen his handiwork myself.