I recently went on retreat at a Jesuit Retreat Center in Colorado. Located outside of Sedalia, it is in the high desert, not up in the mountains. But being back in Colorado reminded me of a family trip that my parents took us on when I was nine.
One of my most vivid memories from that trip was the drive up Mount Evans, which (if memory serves me correctly) is over 14,500 feet above sea level. At one point the road twists and spirals above what is called the tree line — that point at which both the climate and the altitude makes it impossible for anything to grow.
I still remember how the combination of wind, snow, sleet, and hail polishes clean the windward side of the trees and drives them to grow down and close to the ground. That’s life at the tree line and for trees at that altitude, there is no break, except perhaps the changes in season — and even then, the altitude tends to cancel the benefits.
Life at the tree line is not a bad metaphor for life forged under relentless pressure and without protection. The misshaping force of stress and abuse, the absence of grace and forgiveness, can have the same effect.
A healthy spirituality acknowledges our en-bodied nature as children of God. Spirituality is not a footrace to do things of a spiritual nature in the same relentless, face-paced, perfectionistic, competitive mode in which we do everything else. In fact, at its healthiest, spiritual formation reminds us that a rather different balance might be a good thing for us in every department of life.
Make room for things that give you a break from life at the tree line:
• Rest
• Find time for recreation
• Cultivate and nurture intimate relationships
• Make room in your life for people who love you
• Be gentle with yourself
• Receive forgiveness
• And, above all, take refuge in God when you need it
“Take refuge in God when you need it.” Most of the time we don’t take time to meditate on the enormous promise that He is truly our only safety. He is in fact all the attributes Scripture ascribe to Him and more than we can ever comprehend – at least on this side. Maybe on the other side we will know all there is to understand about Jesus but I guess I have my doubts about that. For even in eternity, with all the blessedness that it may bring, how can we know all? even though completely in the spirit. Maybe so, maybe not.
I remember when my son was a freshman at Johns Hopkins University. He was just barely 18 years of age. I was a single mom and had been so since he was 3 months old. So I had concerns of a southern lady whose son had chosen to go off to school 1600 miles away from home. I was facing a very serious surgery and a move from our previous location where we had been living for years. There were adjustments for both of us. Most of all I wondered if what I had taught him about the Lord would remain in spite of the differences he would now face from his studies and fellow students. He sent me a get well card and wrote the following scripture after his signature: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble.” Psalm 46:1
It is interesting how someone special to us can use a verse and it takes on a greater importance than perhaps it would have. I can’t begin to explain how he calmed my fears about what he understood from the time we had spent together before he entered the next phase of his life.
Carol Lawson