The Wisdom Tree
"Delight yourself in the Lord & He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust Him & He will do this." Psalm 37:4-5
The other day my beautiful and adventure loving friend, Emily and I set out on a hike on a more uncommon trail to the Hollywood sign. It had been a bucket list type of goal of mine to get to the Hollywood sign, and it really isn't that hard, and I've lived in southern California for years, so it was time do it! The first hour (maybe two actually) was spent hiking up & down the wrong trails. It actually became pretty comedic as we jogged and dodged several rattle snake infested trails, saying, "this has to be the right trail, this has to be the one!" And then at about a mile in on each trail we would eventually throw our hands up turning around realizing we're only getting further away from our destination. Then onto the next trail we would go. We were actually pretty far off.
BUT eventually, with no water in our water bottles left and in the heat of the day (& already exhausted), we finally found our trail! We decided there wasn't any turning back, so even without water, we hiked. This trail was actually a quick incline so it was much more intense than any usual "hike". Which is actually why we picked this trail, we had heard that it was the most challenging, but the quickest way to the Hollywood sign (when you don't get lost for two hours before... oops).
To our very pleasant surprise we found the perfect resting place near the top (almost to the sign) at a tree that's called, "The Wisdom Tree". There we found pens & paper, a prayer box for wanderers to place their prayers, and lots & lots of prayers that had been left written there before us. We decided to take a much needed break & write our prayers and take a few minutes for ourselves. I read & prayed for a few others there in the box as well. This moment reminded me of my favorite verse, "Delight yourself in the Lord & He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust Him & He will do this." Psalm 37:4
My greatest form of peace is found in those words.... God wired this heart of mine with the desires that pump through it, all I long for is His will for my life. In this very still moment, but in the heat of the day, exhausted and frustrated from our continued wrong directions to all of the dead ends... I thought of how every time I try to do it all my way, it's exhausting, frustrating, and leads me only to dead ends. This isn't a new thought for me, but in this season of my life, I'm trying to be fully intentional about the second half of this verse. It is now time to completely trust that He will do what He has wired my heart for, and He will see it all through.
