We all seem to have a preference for the type of creation that we find most inspirational or refreshing. Some of us are solely beach folks who love sitting in the sand as the surf rolls in and the sun warms us. Whether it is a sunset or a sunrise, we never tire of the ocean scene and sounds. Others of us get our “high” from the mountains. We love to trek on the trails and sense the greatness of God as we survey the vistas from a higher plane than where most of us live. Discovering wildflowers along the path and feeling the freshness in the air exhilarates us and no matter what the season we love going there. A few of us love both of these.

For me, I have been drawn to the mountains the most. Perhaps it is my discomfort with higher temps and humidity that nudges me upward toward the mountains even though I have enjoyed some beaches. Both are quite different from the rolling landscape of the Midwest. Time and again our treks away from home have led us to mountain paths and the sound of gurgling streams.

We’ve been blessed to enjoy the Smoky Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountains, Rocky Mountains of the United States and Canada, as well as the mountains of New England. Each area has its own special vibe and attraction. The trails are fun to explore, and I am invariably looking for new wildflowers to discover. Each area will also impact the skill set you need and the conditioning necessary for the elevation you will be traversing.

My photo files are filled with little flowers I noticed along the path to higher mountains ahead. The variety of colors and the way they appear to survive such harsh conditions always speak to me of God’s provision. They also remind me that even if they appear to be isolated and in a desolate place, God has provided for them and placed them exactly where they are. Each time I see such a wildflower I tuck that reminder into my heart for times when I am not in the mountains and yet might feel I am in harsh conditions and somehow isolated. No matter where I am, He is there for me just as He is for the flowers I discover in the mountains.

There is no question that the mountains can appear more than a little intimidating and it is a challenge to pick a trail and head off into the unknown. Even if the known is not sublime, it is familiar.

That was the very dilemma that Much Afraid faced as she lived in the Valley of Humiliation surrounded by lovely mountains. She had longed to be able to climb to the High Places, but she was lame and unsuited for mountain trails. She was haunted by fears within and family and those around her who reinforced those fears and paralyzed her from moving. Yet she was a part of those in the valley who observed the Chief Shepherd as he pastured his flocks there in the care of his fellow workers.

One day Much Afraid has an encounter with the Shepherd and she tells him she has hoped to escape her valley dwelling and all the fearsome people surrounding her and go to the High Places. He tells her something that creates an even greater longing to be transported there: “The lower slopes of those mountains on the other side of the river are the borderland of my Father’s Kingdom, the Realm of Love. No Fears of any kind are able to live there because ‘perfect love casteth out fear and everything that torments.'”

The invitation from the Shepherd delights her and yet her own doubt and fear quickly rise to the surface of her thoughts. How could she ever manage to go with him where he offered to lead her? She was lame and had no skill. Her fears overwhelmed her more often than she wished but as she looked into the eyes of the Shepherd, she saw such tenderness there that she was drawn to the love they conveyed. Surely if he was with her, no harm could come her way and she could manage the trip with his help. With trembling in her voice, she accepted the invitation to go with him. Within moments of that acceptance, she hesitates again when he tells her that he will take her to the foot of the mountains so none of her enemies can upend her, but then he has chosen two companions who will travel with her and be her guide up the mountains to the High Places.

Much Afraid had not expected that he would not travel the whole path ahead as her guide and protector. How could he ask that of her?

The Shepherd responded that no matter where she was on the journey or how treacherous the terrain or her lameness, she could call him at any time, and he would hear her and come to help.

How easy for us it is to forget that whatever journey, we are on, just like Much Afraid, we can call on the Chief Shepherd and he will be there to help us. He doesn’t remove the challenges of the climb or the journey but he promises to go with us. Some of us are not unlike Much Afraid and have not been able to ignore the fear that would seek to overtake us in its relentless pursuit of us. But there is purpose for the mountainous terrain and our unskilled ability to face the climb and the companions he chooses for us will be chosen with care even as those Much Afraid will have. But we, like Much Afraid, may not be excited with the companions when we first meet them. Like her, we may not “realize that the Prince of Love is ‘of very tender compassions to them that are afraid.'”

Some of us love a good detective story full of twists, turns, and yet-to-be-solved crimes and mysteries. Little wonder that over the decades that novels, movies, and TV shows featuring these things have been popular. Movies like Murder on the Orient Express, Sherlock Holmes, L.A. Confidential, and Dirty Harry come to mind as examples many of us know. The list of TV shows offers a considerable variety from the benign Andy Griffith to Dragnet, Miami Vice, Columbo, Criminal Minds, Law and Order, and Hill Street Blues to name a few.

There are also various series available through various streaming services that give us samples of such stories from other countries that capture our attention such as the popular series Foyle’s War. We become fascinated by the mind of the detective tracking the perpetrator and learn different techniques used to accomplish the task.

But what if we are the ones being tracked and pursued by something or someone who seeks to do us harm?

What emotions do we struggle with as we seek a path of escape from being captured? We haven’t committed a crime so why are we being pursued we wonder.

The sleuth who relentlessly tracks us is as tenacious as the best bloodhound. Just about the time we think we have shaken off the hunt, we round a corner in a different scene and time and there it is again.

Many offer us advice on how to get free or avoid this menace but that proves to be easier said than done even though we may sometimes make good an escape from the hunt.

We’ve been marked as enemies because of whose we are and the sleuth that tracks us hopes to cripple us even if we are not destroyed by the ploys and tricks used against us.

Who or what is it that we are fleeing to avoid?

Fear.

Some might proclaim that nothing frightens them while others live with constant anxiety that cripples them and leaves them alone in isolation. Others will have certain events or things where this menace appears, but none of us will fully escape it. The enemy of our souls uses fear in all its forms with skill honed from the beginning of time and he and his imps want us to believe there is no one to rescue us. And in recent years he has been ramping up his efforts using crime, war, disease, culture wars, and a pandemic all at once.

If we have a spiritual base, we have used all the tools in our toolbox to seek to combat these things with varying degrees of success. The assaults recently have been so intense and constant that most of us have grown weary in battle and as I was considering that, I remembered Much Afraid and what I learned through her story published in 1977 in the book, Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard. It caused me to check my library to see if I still had a copy since the book has been out of print for some time.

Tucked back in a corner I found the book whose pages were yellowed with age. It was worn from more than one or two readings years ago and I sensed that it was time to read it again to learn ways we can better defeat the enemy that stalks us.

Some of you may remember the story but many of you have not. One of the main characters of the book is one called Much Afraid. The preface of the allegory gives us a sense of the author’s purpose for the story and her passion for Christ.

“How deeply we who love the Lord of Love and desire to follow him long for the power to surmount all difficulties and tests and conflicts in life in the same exultant and triumphant way. To learn the secret of victorious living has been the heart’s desire of those who love the Lord, in every generation.”

Hannah Hurnard

The author reveals insightful truths about Much Afraid’s journey to the High Places that Christ (the Shepherd) invites her to go. They bear revisiting for me and perhaps you as well.

“But the High Places of victory and union with Christ cannot be reached by any mental reckoning of self to be dead to sin, or by seeking to devise some way or discipline by which the will can be crucified. The only way is by learning to accept, day by day, the actual conditions and tests permitted by God, by a continually repeated laying down of our will and acceptance of his as it is presented to us in the form of the people with whom we have to live and work, and in the things that happen to us. Every acceptance of his will becomes an altar of sacrifice, and every such surrender and abandonment of ourselves to his will is a means of furthering us on the way to the High Places to which he desires to bring every child of his while they are still living on earth.”

Hannah Hurnard

I hope you will join me as I share in the posts ahead how we (like Much Afraid) can learn the path to the High Places and gain hinds’ feet to take us there.

“The High Places and the hinds’ feet do not refer to heavenly places after death, but are meant to be the glorious experience of God’s children here and now – if they will follow the path he chooses for them.”

Hannah Hurnard

Throughout every day we are all bombarded by messages that come to us from every direction. They arrive as voicemail, text, email, memorandum, and even through “snail mail” crammed into our mailboxes. Some of them are ones we are eager to hear or get and others are not. Sorting through all of them consumes time and no matter how we may have felt when this barrage first started, most of us are weary of all the time this takes out of our day (or night).

Each message (wanted or unwanted) requires a decision from us of some sort. Often that means we need to give or leave a response as well and that means we add to the clutter of messages because we add to them. Sometimes we are stunned on a day without many messages to deal with but that would be rare because many of us write messages or notes to ourselves to remember one thing or another.

Most messages come as print, audio, video, or mixed format for us. But there is something about this that we can miss in our snowstorm of messages each day.

Each of us in our person is also a message. I was reminded of that while reading in 1 Thessalonians when Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica:

“The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Master’s Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don’t even have to say anything anymore—you’re the message!”

1 Thessalonians 1:6-7 (MSG)

Paul is stating plainly that these people had heard the message of God’s Word and it had so changed and impacted who they were in every area of their lives that they had become the message.

This wasn’t about writing down something for someone or telling someone in just words. This was a complete transformation of who they were so every aspect of behavior, speech, nonverbal expression, and choice reflected how the Word had been engrafted into them.

And people noticed.

What a message all they met or interacted with must have received, but what about us now?

We also are a message to everyone who encounters us or observes us whether we intend that or not. We convey who we are to more than those we are intentionally wanting to communicate with. We, the message, are given to our neighbors, postman, cashier, waiter or waitress, mechanic, and hundreds of others every day who observe us whether up close or at a distance. Our values and choices are conveying who we are – we are a message.

Many of us may not actually know our neighbors well. Beyond waving or saying “hello” other interactions may not happen, but the message of us gets conveyed in hundreds of ways – when and how our trash cans are left out, how we handle our lawn and landscaping, whether we scream at others who live with us, if we train our children and animals to respect property, whether we work nights or days, or are regularly seen heading out to worship on a Saturday or Sunday. All these are our message to the world and when all these messages are combined, they convey quite a sketch of us.

That can be funny or sobering to consider.

But in all the places we live and move each day is there evidence that we are believers in Christ? If so, is it because we have told them, or they have seen us carrying a Bible with us or is it because they see or sense something more? Does Christ’s life in us cause us to be a fragrance (as Paul wrote to the Corinthians) that distinguishes our message beyond the words we say or the things we carry? Whether we intend to or not we are the message and for some, the only message they will really see or read to gain a sense of whose we are. Does who we tell them we are match the message of us?

It can be far easier to say who we are than to have the message of us actually convey the words we say.

The message of us will always be the one others remember more than what we may say to them. Do our convictions need to be strengthened so that we don’t need to plan or think through the message second by second? What happens with the messages we take into us through all and any means? It is certain they shape and impact us and the message that we become.

The Apostle Paul spoke to that as well when he addressed the church at Thessalonica:

“When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn’t just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions.”

1 Thessalonians 1:5-6 (MSG)

Do we need more steel in our convictions to live authentically each moment of each day?

However we choose to answer that question, or live each day, let us remember this – we are the message.