Lifting My Eyes | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Lifting My Eyes | Previous Challenge Entry
By Dawn Elwell
10/09/14
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Sitting in my kayak on the launch pad I scanned the lake. It was surprisingly calm. I lifted my face to the warmth of the late September sun as it illumined the early bursts of color that spotted the heavily wooded shoreline. Glorious. I placed my palms on the deck, lifted the weight of my boat, and thrust myself forward, gliding onto the water.
Sacajawea. Suddenly her name came and filled the space all around me. But I couldn’t remember anything specific about her. I paddled silently, thoughtfully, and caught up with my history buff husband. “What can you tell me about Sacajawea?” I asked. He described her helpfulness to Lewis and Clark at a critical hour in their westward mission of discovery, and referred me to a chapter in one of his favorite books. The next morning he marked it and laid it aside for me.
As soon as I was able I grabbed it and slipped outside into the sunshine, settling into a lawn chair. It was a long chapter, too long to finish that day, and more focused on the growing pains of our nation. But just after the paragraphs describing Sacajawea a page corner was folded over. I searched for the indicated nugget. My husband reads to me while I’m doing dinner dishes and I often ask him to fold pages over so I can go back and ponder later, but rarely do. I found it. “Then let us come forward with faith, nothing doubting, and He will most unquestionably hear us... Some, who have made a profession of Christianity, and have by their own negligence caused the Spirit to depart, think their day of grace is over. But where do they find such doctrine? I find our Savior ever entreating and wooing us, using the most endearing language and endeavoring by every means without compelling (for that would destroy our free agency) to bring us to Him, that we may have life" (Jedediah Smith, From Sea To Shining Sea, Pg. 333-334). That we may have life. The heart of our faithful Creator.
I marvel at the display of glory in which we live, indicating in countless ways His eternal power, transcendent wisdom, patient love. I lift up my eyes, away from the cardboard and plastic of my increasingly electronic world, and see spiritual reality unfolding, bearing witness to all that His prophets have written. “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world....For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Psalm 19:1-4; Romans 1:20, NASB).
So often the Holy Spirit has met me in the critical moments, drawing me center, guiding me through, helping me to lift my eyes...that I may have life...abundant life.

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