Crying to Glow Sticks, pt 1

Last weekend, 8 (the number of new beginnings) women went to Paulina Lake to meet with God and have some fun!  That was our call.  The vision came months ago to open a weekend for battle, play and rest.  God said go and that I’d know who to invite and sure enough, the people He wanted there showed up.  WE all had 2 things in common: 1.  We need friends 2. We have BIG circumstances that we need a BIG God for!  Many of us barely knew anyone else, it was a divine appointment that only God knew how it would work.

Friday night~Triage night.  Up the to the lake we went and many of us arrived in tears…crying out with exasperation of our circumstances, overwhelmed with the pressure, needing something to give.  There were some weary smiles and some desperate tears but somehow God got us to the table for a nice meal together.  We enjoyed a simple campfire and LOTS of smoke(not so enjoyable).  We slept.

BREAKFAST ~ALWAYS A YUMMMM!!

Then…find a rock that represents the burden(s) you choose to carry instead of lay down at the feet of Jesus.  His yoke is easy and His burden is light but yet we choose our heavy, bulky, burdensome ones to carry!  Go figure….

We began our trek to conquer the mountain.  A little under 2 miles, a hike to the top….NAME THE MOUNTAIN AND LETS CONQUER IT!

Up we went, easy at first, although the burdens(our rocks) were not so fun to carry anymore.  We were battling our mountain with the burdens in tow.  The rocks became heavy to carry and one by one at the right time, God called us and we chose to lay them down….down the hillside they went.

Personally, I carried one of my burdens forever!  I decided to hold it up above my head so I could physically feel the burden.  I held on until the very last second, the burn in my shoulder was so great I was weeping from the heaviness.  Then I heard the still small voice say “Tracy, if you are going to conquer the mountain in your life you have to lay this burden down!”

I trust you God!

Launching the boulder in the air, down the mountainside it went, YES, YES, Whoops, Hollers of agreement from the faithful friends.  Some still carrying their burdens but still able to celebrate my freedom.  I lifted my hands, shouted for joy and ran to the top….but then there came a place where we all got stuck.