Inescapable Doxology - Lee Shelnutt
It had been so long. We hadn’t taken a trip like this in years – a quick get-away, just the two of us. She needed a pleasant surprise (but not too surprising if you know my lovely wife) and I needed a getaway be it ever so brief.
Possible? Well, the pandemic was in a valley not on a peak. And, Fall break would be ideal. Hmmm.
Now, where? What would the budget allow? I had been in Colorado a couple of times in the past few years. She hadn’t been there since high school. Hmmm. I typed “Google flights” into my web browser and clicked on the link. “Where to?” it asked. I typed “Denver.” Then I typed my dates – fly out on a Monday morning, fly back late Wednesday. Yeah, I know, crazy, but it’s all that the budget would allow. I hit “return” and Google flights did the rest. As the options popped up, I couldn’t believe it. $105 RT! “Oh Lord, thank you! That would work!”
Would there be an Airbnb, cheap enough and decent enough in the mountains, not too far from Denver, and close enough to some nice hikes to make it doable?? Back to the web browser. “Airbnb.” Click. Let me try, “Idaho Springs”…wait…set the filters….yes, there was an apartment within walking distance of the St. Mary’s Glacier trailhead, 15 minutes away from downtown Idaho Springs, and a short drive further to plenty of other great trails. Woohoo!
Now, how do I keep it a secret, and yet, prep us both for hikes at high altitude, knowing that we didn’t have time to let our bodies get adjusted naturally? The best way to spoil a trip like this was to get altitude sickness! There must be some concoction to do it – or at least to help. Research…well, there it was. “Take these supplements beginning a few days before travel” and it might help. Worth a shot and I can keep the trip a secret, at least up until a few days before.
Book the flights and two nights at the apartment. Enlist the aid of our travel-loving daughter to cryptically brace her mom and tell her, “just go with what dad says, no matter how strange it may sound!”
Two days before the trip, “Here honey, take these three tablets a couple of times a day.” She replied, “And why exactly?!” My cryptic response, “They’ll help you breathe and not have headaches.” She paused a bit, prodded a bit more. I wasn’t biting. She smiled. And she took them. Neidin had done her job!
The next day, same routine, but then I started texting her pictures of Colorado scenes. She needed to pack correctly, after all.
The following day we were off for the airport. Masks in place. Carry-ons carefully packed.
So as to not to make a short story even longer (but if you ever need to know what rental car company not to use in Denver, just ask me), let me skip to Tuesday – the big hiking day. On our second hike, this one in the afternoon, we had made our way a couple of miles toward the summit of Chief Mountain, when due to the elevation we lowlanders struggled. We would hike a quarter of a mile and then rest to catch our breath, and then repeat that cycle. After the third or fourth of those cycles, we were just about to break the tree line. At that point, I noticed a beautifully colored rock outcropping just off the trail, where it looked to me like I might be afforded a beautiful vista. So, off I went, carefully out on the rock, and then stopped and looked out!
Oh, what an amazing sight it was! The altitude had been taking my breath, now the glory was! There before my eyes was the grandeur of the Colorado Rockies stretching for mile and miles – patches of Aspens below me, cloaked still in their vibrant yellow, fall, splendor; forests of evergreens all around, rocky outcrops, patches of snow, and a glorious blue sky! Literally, it took my breath away.
But then, and what I’ve been trying to get to, something else happened and it was inescapable. I couldn’t hold it back. The power of the scene was so staggering for me that the doxology just came out – no matter how hard it was to breathe!
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
I’m sure Joni was glad no one else was around yet to hear me! But there was no stopping it.
It then became one of those curiously odd moments of self-reflection. I couldn’t have stopped those words from coming off my lips even if I had wanted to – thus was the power of what the theologians call, “General Revelation.” Inescapable doxology. But then, knowing that I was caught up in that power led me to a convicting question: why am I not so more often?
Was the power of General Revelation driving me to inescapable doxology because of my anticipation as we labored up the trail? I knew the views were going to be great! Was it because this trip was a break from the grind of life? Was it the special grandeur of this particular scene? I’m sure all those were factors in why I was driven to praise and thanksgiving.
But, the question still rung in my head, why is such so infrequent with me? Is it my lack of anticipation? Is it that I have such a poor expectation of the power of General Revelation? I mean, the Rockies are one thing, but all those leaves that need raking are quite another. Is it because the daily grind of life pulls my eyes down to the labored footfalls on the rocky, dusty trail and my mind to how hard it is to breathe, rather than to the miracle of breath and the beauty of a rocky trail? Self-focused and downward rather than outward-focused and heavenly?
Whatever the sinful reason, this child of God, who has been brought to see his great need of salvation and the beauty of salvation through the power of Special Revelation, wants to be led more and more to inescapable doxology and thanksgiving through the power of Special and General Revelation – from the pages of Holy Scripture, to the grandeur of the Rockies, to the beautiful leaves on the ground, to each breath, to a holiday table set with God-given, God-reflecting beauty and goodness.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork…
The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul…
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Psalm 19:1, 7, and 14