Volume 2

33. Spiritual Rock Cairns

Have I told you guys about the time I lost my mom in a foreign country? Daughter of the year, I know lol.

So my husband and I got stationed in South Korea, and while we were there we decided that my mom deserved something REALLY nice. She has had a hard life...always had dreams to travel but could never afford it. But since we were already there, if we bought her a ticket and she took our spare bed...it was perfect! So we took a week of leave and flew her to South Korea, she was LOVING IT!

One day we were out hiking in Bukansan National Park, it's a lovely little mountain, and decided to hit Dobongsan peak (see the pictures we took from every season!) and she said, "y'all can go ahead to the peak, my knees can't handle that last steep incline."

It was only another few hundred yards to the but quite the scramble. She said, "I'm gonna go ahead and begin making my way down slowly so I don't aggravate my knees. It will take me longer to get down than you." She has years of sports and work injuries, hills are tough! Well we started coming down the mountain, after what felt like an hour I knew good and well we should of caught up to her by now...I felt very uneasy. Her American cell phone obviously didn't work in Korea so we had no way of contacting her! We doubled back and tried a different path down...there were dozens of ways to get down, all ending up at different streets and subway stations.

I was beginning to panic a little. Dusk was approaching. We were calling out and zig zagging all over this mountain searching for her, panicking that she may have fallen. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something that made my whole body FREEZE. It was a rock cairn. (See picture of a rock cairn.)

Relief, flooding through my body. My mom had been here, and I knew which way she went. We were outdoorsy growing up. Always hiking. When I ran cross country in high school; she would hike the marked trail while I did hill sprints on a specific part of a trail or took extra hard detours. If we were going to be separated for greater than several minutes, she would leave little rock cairns and arrows for me to follow like bread crumbs to her, and vice versa.  The below is just one example. How easy is this to miss on a very steep mountain if you're frantically looking for someone?

Can you imagine being in a foreign country, surrounded by people who speak a different language, and trying to find a lost loved one who knows even less about the country than you? But you are so familiar with them that after over a decade of not seeing them...a few specifically placed rocks can tell you all you need to know?

We followed those rock cairns right to her, found her in 20 minutes. She was fine, she said, "what took you so long?" I told her that initially I didn't see the rock cairn. I wasn't looking for it. My husband missed it because he had no idea what a rock cairn was or what it meant to us.

Isn't that just like us and God? He leaves little spiritual rock cairns for us to follow...if we only stop to look for them and follow them. If you've never felt the Holy Spirit in your life, how can you even know what to look for? God speaks.

He gave us the Bible, a perfect roadmap. There are wise elders for us to seek counsel from. And always, we can pray. When we pray, we spend time with the Father. And the more we spend time with the Father, the more we can recognize His voice. Even when we are panicking! Many times in my life I've had "a gut feeling" or "something just told me to *insert whatever it is the Holy Spirit told me to do" whether I realized it was God or not. Pray. Spend time in your Word. God won't bring you up a mountain without leaving something to mark the correct path down. Make sure the only voice that you listen to comes from God and not the enemy.

James 4:8
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you...

Jeremiah 33:3
He says, "Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know"

Jeremiah 29:13
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will

John 8:47
Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God."

Isaiah 30:21
And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

John 16:13
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Luke 11:28
But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

How many spiritual rock cairns have you missed in your life? That you deeply regret missing? I have so many.

Have you ever ignored that "gut instinct" that was meant to protect you, and had something bad happen? That's the Holy Spirit trying to give you discernment and guidance. Pray to God that you can listen, and discern what He is trying to say at all times. Ignoring our wants and focusing on His path.