Journey to A High Place

His way teaches you who he is and who you are with him.

Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith | ICHOOSEMYBESTLIFE.COM

LIFE IS NOT AN UNTESTED JOURNEY. THE HEARTACHE AND DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE PAST CAN LEAVE YOU AFRAID to dream, to desire, to hope.

It’s safer to stay stuck in the comfort of your fears than to expect more. My heart and mind were in this condition when I first encountered Hannah Hurnard’s book Hinds’ Feet on High Places. I was grounded in my doubts and residing on a level much lower than God’s best.

Despite the mental chains that had me bound, my curiosity about what was possible remained. It stirred my heart to trust the Shepherd when he beckoned me to follow him into the unknown.

Like the main character in Hunard’s allegory, I was Much-Afraid. I feared change. I feared new people. I feared transparency. I feared humiliation. I feared exposure. I feared growth. I feared success. I feared failure. I had many fears. But the one person I was not afraid of was the Shepherd. He had never hurt me. With gentle care, he had nurtured and comforted me in my fears. This began my dilemma about his invitation to journey with him to the high places. How do I say no to him when everything within me wants to trust him more? How do I break free from the gravity of my fears to soar on the wind of his love?

“In all the world, I have no one but you. Help me to follow you, even though it seems impossible. Help me to trust you as much as I long to love you.” ―Hannah Hurnard, Hinds’ Feet on High Places

Maybe you can relate. You feel the pull of his love calling you to follow him on a new adventure for 2020. Your spirit cries out, “Yes, Lord! I will follow you.” But your mind tells you this journey is too risky.

You know him to be good, but you’ve experienced enough bad in your life to be hesitant. You stand on the precipice of the new thing he wants to bring you into and slowly back away from the edge. The seed of his loving call is prickly with the thorns of the unknown.

“Much-Afraid looked at the thorn and shrank from it. Then she looked at the Shepherd’s face and repeated his words to herself. ‘When the seed of Love in your heart is ready to bloom, you will be loved in return,’ and a strange new courage entered her . She suddenly stepped forward, bared her heart, and said, ‘Please plant the seed here in my heart.’” ―Hannah Hurnard, Hinds’ Feet on High Places

Courage must arise to move forward in this journey.

The way the Shepherd leads demands a deeper level of trust. Each path with its challenges to overcome. You will encounter sorrow, loss, pain and tribulation. He does not promise the journey will be without difficulty. His only guarantee is that he will never leave you or forsake you.

Though trying, his way teaches you who he is and who you are with him. He takes you to new heights in your understanding and your relationship. It is a journey from who you believe you are to who He says you are.

The more you get to know him, the more you learn about yourself.

You are equipped by his love. You are upheld by his hand. You are lead by his grace. You are redeemed by his mercy. When you reach the high place of his greatest desire for you, your old name will no longer fit. Here he calls you by your new name, the name once hidden by your fears is now being revealed by His light and love.

“The Shepherd laughed too. ‘I love doing preposterous things,’ he replied. ‘Why, I don’t know anything more exhilarating and delightful than turning weakness into strength, and fear into faith, and that which has been marred into perfection.… That is my special work,’ he added with the light of a great joy in his face. ‘Transforming things —to take Much-Afraid, for instance, and to transform her into —’ He broke off and then went on laughingly . ‘Well, we shall see later on what she finds herself transformed into.’” ― Hannah Hurnard, Hinds’ Feet on High Places

The journey of Much-Afraid is one of triumphant healing despite great difficulty.

At many points in her story, she is tempted to turn back. Enemies like pride, self-pity, resentment, fear and bitterness attempt to sabotage her progress. With each test along the way, she builds an altar on which she sacrifices the weaknesses she has overcome to persevere. Her offerings are consumed by flame, leaving behind a stone. Much-Afraid keeps each stone as a reminder of her sacrifices and as a testimony of the Shepherd’s faithfulness to keep his promises.

I am often tempted to do the same.

When faced with a new challenge, it’s easy to forget the past difficulties God has already brought you through. Remembering his faithfulness builds up my courage to continue moving forward. On many occasions, it has been the strength I’ve needed not to give up. When his faithfulness looms larger than the current obstacle, steps of faith are the natural response — each step bringing you closer to the high places. The places where your spiritual maturity has blossomed past the need for people to validate you because you know you are His beloved fully loved and fully accepted.

I credit this book for transforming how I practice medicine and how I minister to a hurting world.

Hurnard’s allegory helped to reveal to me the connection between physical, spiritual and emotional pain. It challenged me to lead from a place of transparency. Too often, we see people living in a place of wholeness without a clear understanding of the broken way which led them there.

The journey to the high places of God has many twists and turns along the path. It is helpful for others not only to see you standing on the mountain top, but to also hear about the times you fell down and had to get back up. When you share your journey, you remind others they too can overcome and be transformed.

“Therefore I begin to think, my Lord, you purposely allow us to be brought into contact with the bad and evil things that you want changed.

“Perhaps that is the very reason that we are here in this world, where sin and sorrow and suffering and evil abound, so that we may let you teach us so to react to them, that out of them we can create lovely qualities to live forever. That is the only really satisfactory way of dealing with evil, not simply binding it so that it cannot work harm, but whenever possible overcoming it with good.” ―Hannah Hurnard, Hinds’ Feet on High Places