{"id":328,"date":"2016-05-29T23:12:39","date_gmt":"2016-05-29T23:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=328"},"modified":"2017-05-27T14:24:06","modified_gmt":"2017-05-27T14:24:06","slug":"sabbath-rest-ahhh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/05\/29\/sabbath-rest-ahhh\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday, May 29 Sabbath Rest – Ahhh!"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY:\u00a0 <\/strong>A beautiful, cool morning with a breeze rustling in the cottonwood trees felt so good!\u00a0 There was a church service with Psalm 46 included, which was very encouraging–“The Lord is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble; therefore we will not fear…”\u00a0 This has been such a tough trail, and many times I have been at the end of my own strength.\u00a0 But God truly is “very present”.\u00a0 I spent time doing “chores” but very relaxed, with lots of eating the great food.\u00a0 Fixit mostly just lay down and “turned into jello.”\u00a0 We so needed this!\u00a0 Sabbath rest is wonderful.\u00a0 Tomorrow back to the trail!<\/p>\n

\"may-29-8\"DETAILS:\u00a0 <\/strong>This morning we stepped out into a cool, fresh morning and stood there taking in the sweeping views across the Abique valley.\u00a0 The breeze was rustling in the cottonwood trees\u00a0and birds were singing their morning songs.\u00a0 No hiking today–time for a Sabbath rest.<\/p>\n

After a great breakfast, we headed over to the chapel for\u00a0church.\u00a0 Turns out that the husband of Ghost Ranch’s administrator is a retired Presbyterian minister, and today he was preaching.\u00a0 There was a small but colorful congregation\u00a0of about 10 people attending.<\/p>\n

Behind the\u00a0communion table up front, there was a large clear window, with a panoramic view of the valley–what a view of God’s awesome creation!\u00a0 It’s Memorial Day weekend, so the service\u00a0focused on\u00a0Psalm 46\u00a0 “The Lord is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble; therefore we will not fear.”\u00a0 I sat there thinking about how awesome it is that God is BOTH refuge (where\u00a0we can go for comfort and safety) AND He is also our strength (so we can go out again and face whatever is happening and take it on).\u00a0 I remember when I was basically an arrogant atheist\/agnostic, and my reaction to people who were Christians was to pity them–“Poor little wussy babies!\u00a0 They need to believe in God for a crutch because they’re too weak to stand on their own.”\u00a0 That was before\u00a0I discovered the powerful, awesome, loving beyond\u00a0anything I ever could have imagined Person that God is.\u00a0 Sure, I could stand on my own two feet and be strong, for myself, but\u00a0to do that, I had to harden myself inside and concern myself more with “me” than with “others.”\u00a0 Not good.\u00a0\u00a0All that has changed since I stopped blowing God off and pushing Him away.\u00a0 I “laid down my weapons”\u00a0and surrendered to Him.\u00a0Now I get to hike with Him, have adventures with Him, and make a difference in this very messed up world with Him.<\/p>\n

Anyway, this HAS been a tough trail, this CDT.\u00a0 I’m tired and uneasy from so often having to stop and say, “Where’d the trail go?”\u00a0 Being able to sit and rest in church and listen to the Bible and just soak it in, was wonderful.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I’m 68 years old, and \u00a0many times in the last few weeks,\u00a0I have been at the end of my own strength. But God truly\u00a0has been\u00a0“very present”, over and over again.\u00a0\u00a0The minister also read some excerpts from the book “Grace Under Fire”, which is a collection of letters\u00a0written by U.S. soldiers all the way from the Revolutionary War to Iraq\/Afghanistan, about how they personally experienced God’s presence, strengthening them, when they were under fire or\u00a0a prisoner.\u00a0 I thought about the Wounded Warriors, who are hiking the CDT this year.\u00a0 They are ahead of us by a couple of weeks.\u00a0 Hope they all make it to Canada!<\/p>\n

After church, I did our “town chores”–sorting food came first.\u00a0 Once I knew what we still needed to get, I raided the awesome, well-organized hiker boxes at the Ranch, and found everything I needed to finish loading up our food bags for the “run to the border” (the Colorado border!).\u00a0 Then I took the laundry, and while it was going through its wash cycles, I sat outside in the sun under an old apple tree, took my shoes off and gave my feet a good sunning.\u00a0 They needed it!\u00a0\u00a0 For the “dry” cycles, I went to the library (just across the lawn)\u00a0and\u00a0indulged in\u00a0a soft comfortable couch to sit on and read a book.\u00a0 Like everything else here at Ghost Ranch, the library is very clean, well-organized and comfortable.\u00a0 There’s no librarian–they operate on the honor system.<\/p>\n

At lunch, while we were enjoying more great food, in walked HoB!\u00a0 He was exhausted, fresh off the trail, and so hungry.\u00a0 He plans to zero here tomorrow.\u00a0 Other hikers also started coming in off the trail.\u00a0 Everybody has tales to tell of their adventures up in the Pedro Peaks, with the snow, the icy swamp meadows, and the disappearing trail.<\/p>\n

I spent a chunk of the afternoon lying down and studying maps for the upcoming section of the trail, trying to get an idea of what to expect.\u00a0 We have both Ley maps and Bear maps, and I looked carefully at both.\u00a0 After that, I just rested.\u00a0 Fixit and I both feel like we are just turning into jello.\u00a0 Wow, we are tired!\u00a0 After dinner, Fixit went to the library so he could get wifi and do some internet stuff, while I wandered off to look at the plants and gardens and old buildings.<\/p>\n

Tonight we’ll get a good rest, and tomorrow, we’ll be headed back UP to 10,000 feet again, in the northern New Mexico mountains!\u00a0 Ghost Ranch has been wonderful.<\/p>\n\n\t\t