Life Happens in the Journey

My name is Grace King and I’m a first year mountain guide here at Beyond.  I had the amazing experience of going out last week on my first trip of the summer, with a group from Arizona, with the summit of Albert in our sights.  We were a group of fifteen including leaders and guides and we set off with high spirits toward our goal.  It wasn’t long until we began encountering unexpected setbacks. By day three a bout of temperamental weather moved in and we awoke the next morning to five inches of fresh snow. That morning we realized we had to readjust our goals and the High Ridge campsite became our new summit, one day and a thousand feet short of our original goal.  After dusting the snow off of everything, warming up a bit with breakfast and taking down camp, we headed up the long stretch of snow to the High Ridge in near whiteout conditions.

I was praying throughout that day that our participants would get to see the view at some point.  Walking up that snowfield looked endless, step after step, stretching up above and down below us until it disappeared into the fog in both directions.  As we neared the High Ridge, the clouds lifted and suddenly we could see all of the surrounding mountains, the inlet below us, the rocky outcroppings that make up the North and South Sentinels near our campsite, and the breathtaking icefall created by the glacier flowing out of Microwave Bowl.  We were so excited. We spent an hour taking pictures and standing in awe of the beauty of God’s mountains set against the fire of the sunset He painted for us that night.

That evening, I couldn’t help but wonder if I would have been willing to climb up all that way had there been no chance of a break in the clouds, no prospect of an amazing view, just fog, fog, fog, all the way up and all the way down.  I posed this question to the group that night and we talked about life and the times when following God seems like walking up a snowfield in a whiteout with no goal in sight.  Sometimes I’m so focused on the goal that I miss the richness of the journey, with all its joy and pain.  God has been teaching me about the value of the journey for the past few years.  So often I get oriented toward the future and I miss the beauty of the life that happens along the way.  The journey often has a greater and more lasting impact on my life than the brief moments of achievement I experience.  After all, the journey is what makes the achievement possible, and what makes reaching my goal so sweet.  I want to be willing to journey with God, not knowing when the sun will break through the clouds but certain in the fact that my heart is being transformed in the process.

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Gracie King is a first year mountain Guide at Beyond Malibu.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left your ears will hear a voice behind you saying “this is the way, walk in it.” - Isaiah 30:21