BY ADRIANA ESPINAL

There’s something about the outdoors that renews my spirit. Maybe it’s those moments where the silence is only broken by the cracking of twigs on the forest floor as I move forward, unsure where the next turn will take me, or maybe it’s the smell of fresh pine air that fills my lungs until my chest can’t expand any further. Perhaps it’s those moments at the base of majestic mountains that make my place in this world – and any troubles I’m experiencing – feel so small. 

Every year since moving to Boston, I’ve taken a longer trip outdoors with the purpose of escaping the city and being renewed. This year, I invited my brother and decided we’d go to the Pacific Northwest. On our week-long excursion, we hiked and camped through Mt. Hood, Crater Lake National Park, Cannon Beach, and Mt. Rainier. Crater Lake was my idea and I almost regret it because in the process of recording my brother jumping off a cliff and into the lake, I – while standing on said cliff – dropped my phone into the lake. And it wasn’t just any lake – it is the deepest lake in the entire country. Of course. As I watched it descend from this world into the next, the thought of jumping into the lake to save my five-year old phone didn’t even cross my mind. Instead, I stood still on that cliff and closed my eyes in frustration, wondering why I couldn’t be more careful. 

I spent the rest of the evening disappointed in myself and annoyed that I’d lost photos and other sentimental pieces that were only on that device (for years, I’ve refused to pay extra for cloud storage, but I’ve learned my lesson). A new phone would be expensive and my budget was already pretty tight, so I didn’t want to think about my bank account. The next day when I broke the news to my mom using my brother’s phone, she could tell I was a little distraught and said, “You have emergency savings, so use that to buy a new phone. You probably weren’t going to buy a new phone unless it fell into a lake anyway. Just get excited about it!” And she was right. 

Maybe that’s one of the ways God chooses to move in our lives. Sometimes he removes things that we hold onto tightly because if it were up to us, we’d hold onto them for much longer than we should. Instead of stepping into the future he has for us or the new thing that he wants to do in our lives, we grip onto the things that are comfortable whether it’s a living situation, job, habit, relationship, personality trait. Releasing those things requires faith and if I’m honest, sometimes I choose to keep doing what’s comfortable to avoid the pain that comes with letting go, but I have to remember that God promises that “the path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” (Proverbs 4:18)

As followers of Jesus, we can know and trust that God’s plans for us are good and that our days get brighter and brighter even when it doesn’t seem that way. When we suffer or endure pain or lose something that was once comfortable, we get to love and serve a God who comforts, restores, and redeems in the midst (and after) the suffering. We can rest knowing that Jesus came so that we “may have life and have it in abundance” (John 10:10) even in the times where it doesn’t feel like our lives are abundant.  

I’m reminded of words God spoke to the Israelites as he promised to deliver them from their captors, the Babylonians: “Do not remember the former things, or ponder the things of the past. Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it. I will even put a road in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:19) He was reminding them of how he previously provided a way through the Red Sea when he rescued them from slavery in Egypt and that he would make a way for them again in the future. Similarly, in our lives we should remember that God is faithful to His promises and that he continues to work in and around us to build his kingdom here on earth. The future he has for us is better than our past or current circumstances if we choose to follow and trust him. 

What is something you’re holding onto that God is asking you to release? Focus more on the new thing he is doing and get excited because he never fails. 

[Thank you for reading! If you are looking for a church in Boston or churches in Boston please consider giving Renewal Church a try!]