In His Steps - Day 12

Today is our last day here in Israel before we take our 14-hour flight back home!

I’m taking today to reflect on what I’ve gotten out of this trip. I still hold to a sentiment I made in an earlier post that God wouldn’t be any easier or harder to find here than he is back in Fresno. Funny enough, a few days ago in a coffee shop a woman asked me, “Doesn’t it feel like you're changing? Like you’re being transformed?” To which I tactfully shared something along the lines of, “You know I think God has been at work, doing that for a while now. So in a way, yes.” And it’s true! That’s not just me politicking myself out of crushing her belief from what she sees this destination do for many! I believe God’s been at work for a while to change this broken heart of mine for a while! I have a long way to go before I can ever confidently say I’m the husband, minister, friend, man, or ______ that I want to be. But I’m so confident that I’m right where I need to be, and that’s on the path of trying to get closer to him. It’ll happen, and I believe that! The hard part I’ve been finding for myself before this trip is how to stay on the path consistently.

What I’ve been most impacted by from my time here is how you will find God more and more when you look for him. You’ll see him in the countryside canvas he has painted as you hike from Nazareth to Capernaum. You’ll hear him in the gentle breeze and constant motion of the waves on the shore of Galilee or Tev Aviv. You’ll feel his love through the warm hospitality of the people who live here. When you look at the disjointed architecture of Jerusalem’s streets, you’ll better understand how persistent God is for his people, time and time and time and time again.

Because of this trip, I’m reminded how much God wants to be found. Especially by our experience backpacking for the first week, I’ve been reminded that there are so many trail markers that God has left for us to be guidby him!

Acts‬ ‭17‬:‭24‬-‭28‬ ‭NIV‬‬

”The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’“

God’s given me his word, a wonderful church, a loving family, an amazing wife and so many more things to point me toward him, to keep me on the path. There’s a song that I often sing to myself called “Come Thou Fount” by King’s Kaleidoscope. I’ll leave a link below for you to listen to, but I’ll end my blog with these few lyrics and why they come to mind.

“Prone to wander Lord I feel it, Prone to leave The God I love. Here's my heart, Oh take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.”

I am often so aware of my shortcomings. And when I’m not I’m reminded by those I hurt. As I come home, I can’t help but feel grateful to have gotten the experience of walking in his steps. My hope afterward is to further be on the path towards him, becoming more like him, and trusting him to be at work of getting me home even when I’m off track.

Reflection: Take some time to consider how your walk with God going. Are you on or off track? A way to figure out if you are on or off is to consider how you are becoming more or less like Jesus and trust the path he’s instructed in his word

Pictures

1 Trail marker when hiking

2 Tower of David and the Old Citadel at night

3 Leaving the City

4 Tel Aviv Beach

5 Final Travel Selfie