Welcome! Come on in & join me on an exciting adventure to the most beautiful mountain top experience. I have packed our backpacks with all the essentials for our trek. Of course tea & treats were top of the list!

I love an adventure, don’t you! I have enjoyed trekking through some of our beautiful National Parks here in Australia. My late hubby & I trekked to different parts of the Snowy Mountains in Summertime when the alpine wild flowers were blooming alongside snow melt streams & distinctive snow gums.

On our honeymoon my present hubby & I trekked to breathtaking mountain top look outs of our Great Dividing Range looking out over vast valleys below.

We have hiked through Birchwood forests, passing rock pools & waterfalls where we caught a rare climpse of our unique Platypus. To reach a graggy outcrop overlooking a view of the hills & valleys of our Blue Mountains.

I also love just sitting & taking in the beauty of God’s creation that surrounds me when I’m in the wilderness. There is a special atmosphere when we are in God’s untouched wilderness gardens.

Alone in the wilderness

Hubby & I have been watching the tv program, Alone. We find the series a fascinating exercise in human resilience & tenacity.

Hubby finds the practical survival skills of the contestants interesting. Where as with a professional background in Psychology, I’m more interested in the emotional & mental impact that the solo wilderness experience may have on the contestants.

All of the contestants are experienced in wilderness survival. There are normally ten contestants who are competing for a large sum, they are each dropped off in the wilderness in different points with no contact between them & the barest of survival supplies.

They are essentially alone, thus the title for the series. They all have to live off the land in a harsh & unforgiving environment. Including the dangers of extreme weather & large predators.

They document their own wilderness experience through a camera kit supplied by the producers. The Victor is the last one standing.

As I watch this show each week & observe the mental & emotional toll that isolation from loved ones takes on each individual. I reflect upon my own wilderness experiences. 

Not in surviving outdoor wilderness environments but rather the experience of walking through the wilderness of life.

Before we continue our trek, let’s first define the meaning of wilderness;

Wilderness means an uncultivated, uninhabited & inhospitable region.

So how does this relate to us?

As in the series Alone, each contestant is placed in a region that’s seems uncultivated, uninhabited (by humans) & inhospitable to the individual.

The contestants first need to get the essentials for life established on landing, find a clean drinking water source, find sustainable food sources, build a shelter against the elements & predators.

Each contestant goes about this differently. Some build their semi permanent shelters within the first few days. Even building mini log cabins with chimneys for their indoor fires, as an essential heat source against the extreme cold. Some only have lean too like shelters, similar to a tent or teepee.

The ones who build water tight & insulated warm shelters fair the best. Those contestants who go with a certain mind set, determined to help their families with the winnings stay the longest.

But the extreme experience adversely affects all physically, mentally, emotionally & spiritually.

This had me reflecting upon life, it’s an extreme experience too…Isn’t it!

Life is an extreme experience that has its adverse affects upon us all! 

Life’s wilderness

We enter this wilderness called life, uncultivated. We have regions within that are uninhabited & inhospitable to others & especially to the Spirit of God.

As a child the cultivation & hospitable learning begins but the habitation process can take awhile because we believe we can do it alone.

Even after we have come to that place of spiritual new birth we wrestle with giving up certain areas within our lives for cultivation by His Spirit.

So we trek through different seasonal wilderness experiences, each season revealing areas of great beauty, grown in His image & other areas that are still wild & inhospitable. 

The Satellite Phone

In the Alone series, each contestant is provided with a Satellite phone that has a direct link to the programs rescue authorities, in other words a lifeline.

They must keep this lifeline with them at all times, incase something unforeseen happens in the harsh environment & need rescuing. 

However there’s a catch, once they push that button for help, they are officially announcing they’re tapping out from the competition!

Tapping out means coming to the end of your own resources & yielding to a higher authority

This gave me food for thought! Each of us carry a lifeline linked directly to God the Father! It’s called prayer.

When we use this lifeline, we are actually officially tapping out! We’re saying we realize we can’t do this alone, we need His help & intervention in the situation!

And just like on the show, once they tap out help always arrives, sometimes not immediately because the conditions aren’t right but it does eventually arrive!

Forty years of wilderness praying

You may be familiar with the story of the Hebrews forty years wandering in the wilderness, after being delivered from captivity in Egypt. 

But what you don’t know is the following…

From the moment I accepted Jesus’ redeeming love in my life over forty years ago shared here. I’ve had a burden for those who don’t know His amazing love, grace & peace in their lives. And especially my loved ones.

For the past forty years I have used the lifeline of prayer, praying for them, that they may also come to know His love for themselves. 

I have watched them wander in the wilderness, I could see His bright light beckoning them but they were blinded to His presence & grace.

So I continued to pray, I continued to use that lifeline for over forty years, until they themselves came to that place where they personally chose to tap out of doing it alone & prayed The Prayer

Reaching the mountain top 

Which two of my dear loved one’s did just recently! They entered the promised land of God’s love, grace & forgiveness for themselves. 

Words cannot express the pure joy, relief & peace knowing we will spend eternity together now with God the Father & His Son, Jesus!

“Things which eye have not seen & ear have not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

1 Corinthians 2: 9

God indeed answers prayer! Even persistent prayers over forty years!

You see all the conditions have to align for His perfect timing to be just right! Never give up using that lifeline of prayer for you & your loved one’s my friend. His answer will arrive just at the right moment!

Until next time, 

Jennifer

You’re most welcome to join me in The Reading Nook

Or in Prayer

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