How does an Irish Cherokee end up in the forest? That’s a great question, but a story for another day. This testimony starts with a drive from the hilltop to the valley.
Down a winding road set way back in the forest, no this is not Robinhood, in fact, it was a test waiting just for me. It felt sort of like I had taken a dare, that I could do this for a short period of time, a few days, maybe more maybe less.
I looked out at the forest round about me and knew I had never been anywhere like this before. An invitation to a place I didn’t know how to live.
I can do this I said to myself, as I got out of the truck. I told Yahweh this sure doesn’t look anything like the great plan I made for myself. Hmm…
That’s because it wasn’t, it was His plan.
As I looked all around, I already had all the fear I could handle for one evening. I knew I had done it now and I wasn’t getting myself out of this one.
The truck started up, drove off and that was it until the next day. I woke up the next morning and said self, you can do this, you don’t got a choice.
I felt like I had just joined Yahweh’s Marine Corps, this makes Boot Camp look easy and was gonna be way harder than I thought. He had me right where He wanted me, in the middle of nowhere and no one to help me out of this but him. I felt isolated, abandoned and rejected. I knew Yahweh hadn’t left me and somehow tailored this experience just for me and that He didn’t care much that I liked it or not. The Ruach immediately took me back to the Israelites in the Wilderness. That wasn’t glamping either.
I said nope, not going to be doing this one for 40 days much less 40 years. So I started thinking, think, think, think…What was it they did that ticked Him off, so I dont do it? Speaking of ticked, there were ticks everywhere, any type of tick you wanted, you name it. Why would you make ticks, I pondered? To tick people off of course? A curse, miserable. That’s the only word I could think of at the moment. Then I said uh oh, dont grumble and quickly, I repent Yahshua had asked someone very special and very close to me, “Do you trust me?” Now He was asking me the same, Do you trust me? “I said yes, I trust you, but do we have to do this or can you just take my word for it. Trust but verify as they say. You can imagine, the answer was no, you have to do this, not an option I liked very much, not an option at all really.
I tried to think of a really good reason not to do this. I was tempted to ring the bell and hope for an honorable discharge. I tried to make my point known and I thought it was legitimate. Apparently not because then it started to rain, I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but it did. Struggle after struggle began to feel like survival. I had previously thought that the faith walk was day by day, but I just found out it quickly, it was moment by moment.
I looked around at the wet clay and heard, but not audible, I am the Potter, you are the clay. Wow I thought, did you really have to make this slippery mess to teach me that lesson? I’ve already read Job. I could fall and get hurt you know. I heard, I know, and I’m making you into something I can use, because right now, I cant. I just agreed to fast track and grow up real quick. Why did I volunteer for this? Why, He must’ve planned this all along.
Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, it did. I remember sitting on the couch on Sabbath and torrential rain and winds began to pour, my mind quickly went to camp. Oh no, not again, I watched through the glass window as the wind blew hard. I knew as we slowly drove back up to camp something was terribly wrong. The wind blew the tents so hard they came undone around the edges, almost everything was wet. Now what? Survival was getting harder and harder, moment by moment. The next day looked a lot like a tornado had come through, I was sure it hadn’t. It was time to pick up the pieces. Something began to smell of oday mildew parfume and I knew it wasn’t me. The clothes, towels and sheets had no where to hang and dry out. Camp quickly began to look like a third world country right before my eyes. Stories and pictures of martyrs began to flash before my mind. Pallets straight in a row from tent to tent as if my unfolding saga was the article and it was the illustration. It began to look familiar. Where had I seen this before?
Surely Yahweh, you are painting a beautiful picture.
The artist starts out drawing what looks undescribable but in the end, looks like a magnificent work of art… What couldn’t be imagined, didn’t need to be anymore, here it was. Right smack dab in the middle of some kind of forest. I preferred the woods, don’t you know how much I like the woods, some kind of clearing I could see through to the other side, but then again, we weren’t doing this my way. The sun set and it was a race against time, here came the mosquitos. I began to have it down, a routine of sorts, it was beginning to look alot like I was staying. Everytime I said, I can’t do this anymore I heard, you have been, you are and you will. Yahweh, how long do I have to do this, what are you up to, you have to be up to something. I hope you know what you’re doing because I don’t. Everyday it was the same thing over and over. It began to go week after week with no end in sight, I couldn’t even see past the trees, much less the future. Is it possible that you’re leaving me here forever. Nah, it couldn’t be or could it. Well let me think, I guess I could do this, but I don’t know how. I threw my hands up in the middle of the day and yelled, I give up, you win. I kid you not, that was one great thing about the forest, no one could hear you. I finally submitted to Yah in the Wilderness. That will be fun, going to pick blackberries, if my new friend could just get back here to me. She did, she came driving up, nothing stopping her and I hopped in the car hoping to escape the day. Little did I know what the day held. The cloud was moving and in one hour I was leaving the forest. You see, be careful when you pray for Yah’s Will that you mean what you say because He will have His Way with you. The door was opened and I was finally free. I said goodbye to the untamed forest of spiders, ticks and snakes, oh my!
Hope these stories give you hope.
Proverbs 23:18 says,
For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
And thine expectation (hope) shall not be cut off refers to the hope of comfort here and reward hereafter shall be abundantly realized.