When the Heat is On

 

Blue Ledges on the Hudson 
(photo by Joan B )

Tuesday. 24 June. I had had 8 people signed up for the first Adirondack hike of the Summer.  Now that black fly season is over, I was excited to get up to the central region of my beloved mountains, and get a good 6 mile hike in. The temps have soared since Sunday.  Tuesday got up to 97 in my town with a very high humidity and in the town where the hike was scheduled to take place, it was supposed to be (as of Sunday) a high of 88 predicted with 54% humidity. Not bad.  But. Then.....

Tuesday morning came and now the high was predicted to be 90. I had three people drop out.  That left 5 of us (4 women and one man).  We are all in our 60s except one who is in her mid-50s and one who is 70.  We are all in fairly good shape with BMI's of less than 25.  We are all experienced hikers. Only my self had hiked this trail before. I don't typically hike when temps are above 85 and humidity levels are above 60%.  When it's humid in the northeast, it is STICKY.  There is rarely a breeze.  If there is, it's typically a hot one. The stifling kind, not the refreshing kind.   We decided to go for it. Everyone  was looking forward to it. I prayed a LOT. 

We did great!  Man, was the heat on!  As soon as we got to the river, our destination, after 3.7 miles of schelping through mud, going an extra mile total due to having to navigate around blowdown, we kicked off our boots and socks and plunged into the water. 

Ping, Dave D (in water), Meg
SoulSteps hikers
photo used with permission

After an hour lingering in the water, swimming, eating our lunch and drinking yet more water, it was time to head back to the cars.   For some reason it was only 2.8 miles back so I think we just went over the blowdown rather than around it. Anyways, we had to climb up from the river onto the main part of trail and by now it was about 2:30 pm and HOT!  We had to go slow. We were dripping in sweat and the deer flies were super obnoxious. 

At one point, Meg and I felt like we just couldn't do this. I felt faint at one point which is indicative that I needed some more protein, water, and shade. I had to sit for a minute.  I had to stretch my neck which was screaming at me causing my head to pound. I told Meg and Joan (Dave D and Ping were further ahead and just steadily hiking) that I honestly needed to pray. Meg and I prayed.

And then it dawned on me: here's a spiritual lesson! 

"When the heat is on" is often our most difficult trials or challenges. 

I thought back to when my cervical spine issues began. I know everyone on this hike has had trials of one kind or another whether physical, financial, relational, or emotional/mental. 

And I thought "What do Christ followers do when we face the heat of the battle"

We pray!  We gird ourselves with Scripture. 

These 2 Scriptures are ones I read a lot! They are highlighted in probably every Bible I own, including the digital Bible app one! There are so many other ones I turn to as well but these were the ones going through my head. 

We prayed and trusted "We can do this".  By God's strength, we would make it back to the car. 

And guess what?

The wind picked up a bit,  and I was praising Him for that refreshing breeze! We made it back to the cars and Ping and Dave D had the cars' air conditioning going AND we made it back to more iced water we had saved. 

God is good.  When the heat is on in your life, turn to Scripture.  Trust Him to get you to where you need to go.  It might take baby steps. At one point on the trail, I was going so slow, I felt like a toddler.  I was so slow that my heart rate was able to come down and my anxiety about making it back  went away. 

When the heat is on, remember that God sees you, He loves you, and He is there to guide you.  And when the rushing wind of the Holy Spirit blows through your life, you will be refreshed. 

What Scripture  do you turn to when the heat is on in your life?