Devotion October 4, 2017
04/10/17 20:13
Greetings!
I’m from West Virginia. When you are in another state, you learn that West Virginia is known for a lot of things…. people who don’t wear shoes (I still haven’t quite figured out where this came from but I have run into this notion many times over my life when I am somewhere else), poverty, coal mines, being mistaken for Virginia, burning couches, and mountains. We are the 'Mountain State' after all!
Well the mountains thing pleases me because of all the things West Virginia might be known for mountains is one that is not only true but a great part about the state.
The mountains are beautiful and it doesn’t matter what time of year it is. During the Fall there is a plethora of beautiful colors everywhere you look, during winter there are evergreens that bring some color to the the white snow covered landscape, in the spring there are those beautiful light green new leaves and dots of purple and red color everywhere, and in the summer the full green leaves just make everything a joy…..
Now I know that West Virginia is not the only state with wonderful mountains and beautiful trees but it is home and it is nice to be from a place that is known for its beautiful heights and glorious summits.
However, I will be honest and mention a couple of the down sides to living in a state that is pretty much covered throughout with hills and mountains.
One is driving… There are skills to driving in the mountains. One of those skills is patience. Not only do you have to drive slower because you just can’t go around many of those curves at 55 mph or you will join the trees that border all the roads; and if you get behind a slower car or a log truck or a gravel truck or a coal truck who have real issues traversing the hills, then behind these trucks you are just going to go slow because passing is not an option in most places and often the trucks are so big you can’t see around them anyway…. And I won’t even mention driving in the mountain when it is snowing.
So the other down side to living and driving in the mountains is cell phone service. Now I am sure there are many people who can tell you the ins and outs of how cell phone service works and I’ll be honest, I am not really concerned about that… but I do get concerned about the fact that in many (if not most) of these mountainous areas your cell phone does not work.
I say to myself, ‘what did you do all those years before cell phone service’ and I answer myself, ‘that is really not relevant now because we do have cell service now..’ but not in the mountains.
So you head into the mountains and that hysterical part of you checks your messages and emails and Facebook and all that social media stuff and you take a big gulp because you know you are going to be ‘off grid’ for a while and can you or the world stand that….
And in reality one does because we are use to the fact that if there was a problem with you or the car or whatever you are always just a couple push buttons away from help and when you in are this cell phone free zone that help is not so quickly available.
But what I do think is pretty funny is that when you drive through the mountains and you come out somewhere at the bottom in some type of civilization, all of a sudden you start hearing all this buzzing and dinging and beeping and you realize that your cell phone has just come back on line and you are getting all the messages and emails and Facebook notifications that have been waiting for you while you were up in the mountains! Ding, buzz, beep, buzz…. the world has now found you and there is a part of you that sighs a bit of relief!
But you know, there are no mountains isolated enough or tall enough to separate you from God. There are no curves too tight to pull you off track and away from the one who loves and created you. You never have to worry about driving into a ‘God free zone’ like you do a ‘cell phone free zone’ because there are no God free zones. God truly is everywhere, God is with you every moment - and even if you feel like you are on a pinnacle or deep in a valley we are assured of the loving arms of our God.
Since we know that the Almighty powerful God is there, we can do without our cells for a couple minutes…..
Amen!
I’m from West Virginia. When you are in another state, you learn that West Virginia is known for a lot of things…. people who don’t wear shoes (I still haven’t quite figured out where this came from but I have run into this notion many times over my life when I am somewhere else), poverty, coal mines, being mistaken for Virginia, burning couches, and mountains. We are the 'Mountain State' after all!
Well the mountains thing pleases me because of all the things West Virginia might be known for mountains is one that is not only true but a great part about the state.
The mountains are beautiful and it doesn’t matter what time of year it is. During the Fall there is a plethora of beautiful colors everywhere you look, during winter there are evergreens that bring some color to the the white snow covered landscape, in the spring there are those beautiful light green new leaves and dots of purple and red color everywhere, and in the summer the full green leaves just make everything a joy…..
Now I know that West Virginia is not the only state with wonderful mountains and beautiful trees but it is home and it is nice to be from a place that is known for its beautiful heights and glorious summits.
However, I will be honest and mention a couple of the down sides to living in a state that is pretty much covered throughout with hills and mountains.
One is driving… There are skills to driving in the mountains. One of those skills is patience. Not only do you have to drive slower because you just can’t go around many of those curves at 55 mph or you will join the trees that border all the roads; and if you get behind a slower car or a log truck or a gravel truck or a coal truck who have real issues traversing the hills, then behind these trucks you are just going to go slow because passing is not an option in most places and often the trucks are so big you can’t see around them anyway…. And I won’t even mention driving in the mountain when it is snowing.
So the other down side to living and driving in the mountains is cell phone service. Now I am sure there are many people who can tell you the ins and outs of how cell phone service works and I’ll be honest, I am not really concerned about that… but I do get concerned about the fact that in many (if not most) of these mountainous areas your cell phone does not work.
I say to myself, ‘what did you do all those years before cell phone service’ and I answer myself, ‘that is really not relevant now because we do have cell service now..’ but not in the mountains.
So you head into the mountains and that hysterical part of you checks your messages and emails and Facebook and all that social media stuff and you take a big gulp because you know you are going to be ‘off grid’ for a while and can you or the world stand that….
And in reality one does because we are use to the fact that if there was a problem with you or the car or whatever you are always just a couple push buttons away from help and when you in are this cell phone free zone that help is not so quickly available.
But what I do think is pretty funny is that when you drive through the mountains and you come out somewhere at the bottom in some type of civilization, all of a sudden you start hearing all this buzzing and dinging and beeping and you realize that your cell phone has just come back on line and you are getting all the messages and emails and Facebook notifications that have been waiting for you while you were up in the mountains! Ding, buzz, beep, buzz…. the world has now found you and there is a part of you that sighs a bit of relief!
But you know, there are no mountains isolated enough or tall enough to separate you from God. There are no curves too tight to pull you off track and away from the one who loves and created you. You never have to worry about driving into a ‘God free zone’ like you do a ‘cell phone free zone’ because there are no God free zones. God truly is everywhere, God is with you every moment - and even if you feel like you are on a pinnacle or deep in a valley we are assured of the loving arms of our God.
Since we know that the Almighty powerful God is there, we can do without our cells for a couple minutes…..
Amen!