Day Trippin'

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with my friend, Jon, who I always have the hardest time referring to without using his last name. Great guy.

Anyway, we spent about 4 hours hiking around Rock Creek Park. We were on and off the trails. Mostly off. It was an afternoon of men stuff, guy stuff, and kid stuff. We hiked, we ran, we climbed rocks, we skipped rocks, we scaled gullies. We traversed the creek and streams on make-shift bridges forged by God and beaver. We also made bridges of our own. We ran and hid from the Aztec homeless, an aboriginal tribe with a penchant for kidnapping and enslaving unlucky hikers. We dodged huge piles of poop along the trail, which we attributed to the joggers, but more than likely came from horses. We got lost. We spent an hour sitting on the side of Rock Creek Parkway, talking about God, talking about life, making fun of the passing cars and drivers, distracting them with random antics, playing with a baseball we found.

It was an afternoon that I didn't have to be anything: not an adult, or a Christian, or a leader, or a follower, or a student, or a counselor. I could just be. And it was just what the Great Physician ordered.

One of the more memorable events of the day was biblical. Jon jokingly said he was going to give me a Word. So, he threw his Bible into the air and said the Word from the Lord would be whatever it opened to. The Bible landed open with a stick marking a particular passage: 1 Kings 19. When I heard it was Kings, I said, "Crap, it's bad news."

I was wrong, sort of. It turns out that 1 Kings 19 was the text from this week's sermon at our church. It also happened to be the text of another sermon Jon had heard the day before on the radio. The sermon at our church, one of my pastor's best, was on hearing from God. The passage also talked about God's true nature, receiving His provision, fasting, journeying, resting, discipling and mentoring, and moving out of justified fear into action that changes the world.

It's an incredible passage that requires a lot more in-depth reading. It may even spur a blog series, we'll see.

Thanks, Jon.