Losing the Trail

“’My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."  2 Corinthians 12:9-10

God reveals His power to me in new ways on every trip I lead as a Beyond guide. For instance, on my most recent trip we lost the trail in the forest on the first day. We were off track for a full hour before I realized we needed to turn around. So we lost two hours by the time we got back on the right trail. It was definitely a bit humiliating for me as a second-year guide who has been on that trail multiple times to miss such an obvious turn. It happens, it wasn’t the end of the world, but it was frustrating. Even though it was unfortunate in the moment, God was able to use that moment to teach a lesson to some participants. Getting lost ended up being so significant to one girl in particular that she mentioned it again at the end of the week. She likened the part where we got off track to how she turns away from God without even realizing it. Many times in our lives we get lost; by the time we even realize we have been away from God we have wandered way off track and have wasted so much time. But He always welcomes us back. The participant made this connection to her own life, and throughout the course of the week realized that she wanted to return to Jesus and not continue off His path.

I had my own impactful moment on the summit of Zion on that same trip. It was a complete whiteout and we weren’t able to see the route down. I was a little nervous about the path down and really couldn’t see anything. I asked God to provide a clearing so I could have a better idea about how to safely get off the mountain. It doesn’t always happen this way but within minutes the clouds lifted and the route was totally exposed. I took a quick picture to capture it and almost immediately the clouds swallowed us and we were back in the whiteout. No need to worry though, with that picture we had not problem safely navigating where we needed to go to get to the campsite. We were in a position of weakness and God was able to reveal His awesome power. He was definitely looking out for us. It was an incredible moment to experience how easily God can change a tough situation into something that was a piece of cake.

God is so big and His vastness is made obvious in this huge wilderness that we get to play in. It is such a privilege to have the opportunity to guide young people into these mountains and facilitate their encounters with the Creator.

Living the journey,

Brian Louchis

2^nd Year Mountain Guide