Beyond Beyond

A trip to Beyond is a trip to a majestic and beautiful part of our world.  The inlet with its jagged guardians is an awesome place. To spend time in those mountains is to spend time in a realm beyond the profane civilized environments where we spend our daily lives. Even by worldly standards, time spent at Beyond is sacred because it is unique, set apart, and so totally different from our ordinary moments.

Time at Beyond is special because it affords a perspective on our lives back home.   How rare is the opportunity to (literally) transcend all that we normally do?  At Beyond we live in a distant place, with a new people, according to a higher standard.  How clearly does this allow us to see the truth of our lives back home?  When I first went Beyond, much of my life back home--and most of what I held so important and dear--looked small, remote, and unimportant.  It wasn't until I had been set free from my burdens that I saw just how heavy and burdensome they actually were.

But what is most significant about Beyond is that God uses this place.  He reveals Himself in this place. He who lives above, before, and after all things; He who spoke all things into being "puts on" the things of this world so that He can reveal Himself through them.  God puts on a veil, a veil of things that are not divine, so that He can unveil Himself through them to us.  The winds, the waters, the people, the little red bugs, indeed anything; they all become things that God takes on to show Himself to us.  He does this for us.  He does this because He wants us to know Him.  He wants us to know that He already knows us and already loves us.  If what you see at Beyond does not show you that God loves you, then whatever you have seen, you have not seen God at Beyond.
And God’s love is wild.  He doesn’t stay put.  As soon as He shows Himself to us, He is gone again.  This is not because He likes to play hide and go seek.  Seek as we might, we could never find Him.  It is because He wants us to follow.  We are not meant to sit and observe Him.  We are meant to follow Him.  This is why Beyond is so perfect: it is a journey of faith.  And this shows us that faith is a journey.  We must always take another challenging step forward.   And when we do, God shows Himself again. This is His promise to us.  He does not stay hidden. He wants us to trust Him fully so that we can see Him clearly, again and again and again.

But this then shows us that the significance of Beyond is precisely that Beyond, all by itself, is insignificant.  Special as it is, Beyond is not heaven.  Awesome as they are, the mountains are not God.  In the end, Beyond is still a realm of this world.  What makes Beyond special is that God faithfully comes to it.  He shows up. In doing so, He shows us that He is not bound or caged even by the wild and vast lands of the Canadian wilderness.  He is free.  This God who repeatedly uses Beyond is the God whom nothing can bound, nothing can cage.  Because this is the God who was Jesus Christ.  And since this Jesus was raised from the dead, this is the God who is Jesus Christ.  He lives yet.  The same Jesus who came to Jerusalem comes to Beyond.  And it is this Jesus who wants to guide us in the wildernesses of our lives.

And so every divine trip that starts at Beyond does not end at Beyond.  For Jesus does not hike in the inlet alone.  He hikes there so we can see that He actually walks in all places.  He journeys there so we may journey with Him beyond Beyond.  There will be other Beyonds in our lives.  And Jesus wants to guide us to them and through them.

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Mark became a Christian on Mt. Zion, guided at Beyond in '98 & '99, and was a GTL during the summer of '06.  He is now pursuing a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in Philosophy & Theology.  He is happily married to Janine (Guide '95 & '96) and they have two kids.