This week has been very eventful in many good ways, but the story that I want to share for this week is my Yonah story.
Yonah is a mountain that every squad has to climb with their packs as a squad fitness challenge and Wednesday was the day that my squad, Gap X, was allotted to go. I was not really feeling the greatest about hiking Yonah in the first place, I wasn’t physically feeling great either because I am still currently fighting an infection and a side effect of that is nausea so that doesn’t make anything better. I also was just not in the best mindset either, I was really just feeling overall bitter and negative about going, just not wanting to go at all. And as we started to hike and I started to struggle and fall a bit behind more than most, it was very apparent that I was reflecting my bitterness towards others whether I realized what I was doing or not, which I do not feel good about at all. It has been a very physically, mentally, emotionally, and most of all spiritually stretching time at training camp and I was getting so frustrated and disappointed that I wasn’t feeling or hearing the Lord when all the people around me were.
So we start hiking and I am not looking forward to this uphill challenge because I know it’s going to be hard, not enjoying it, just wanting to be done, not knowing how much more we have. We get to about halfway and I’m not breathing very well, I start to hyperventilate and I have what I am pretty sure is an exercise induced asthma attack. So I drop to the ground and my friend Jacob helps me breathe and catch my breath and Kevin and Logan help lighten my pack. After about 10 minutes, I’m okay to keep on going. My friend Braden stayed behind a bit to make sure I was okay and he said that he wasn’t going to leave his sister in Christ behind, and that truly meant a lot. So the rest of the way up he just keeps on encouraging me forward and to just put one foot in front of the other, and I did. As I was getting to a point where I wanted to quite literally just collapse, my friend Luke comes down the trail from the top, and I ask him how much further, and he said it was right over the bend. As soon as I heard that, I couldn’t stop now! So I kept on going, still struggling a lot, but going. Luke asked if I wanted him to take my pack, and I said no, I don’t care if I pass out, I am finishing this with my pack. Braden and Luke start to set a pace and they said for me to match them and keep up with them so I did. Before I know it, I’m at the top!
I felt so relieved to be able to catch my breath, I drop my pack and I sit on it. I sat there for a minute and then I was by myself and everyone else went to the lookout point. It was at the moment when I was sitting, looking at all the packs laying on the ground that I truly felt God say to me, “This is it.” And what I started to understand was that He means that ‘no matter how much of an uphill battle your life feels like, the result in the end and how you feel so relieved and happy? This is comparable to My eternal eternal glory. You know that it will be hard, but in the end you know that will all be worth it.’ I truly feel that God had revealed Himself to me at that moment! And it was when I understood that I started crying and blubbering because of how happy that truly made me. I got my breath enough to walk over to the lookout point and I start crying even harder, I am just so amazed, I am just at a loss for words. I knew the Lord was going to show me something but I was not expecting it to be at Yonah. I just love how the Lord works, Praise The Lord!!
