Playing, Getting Lost, and Hiking

The above picture was from Jenn's blueberry pie birthday bash during the second retreat weekend. I just really like this picture and wanted to share it.

Tonight, though, I'd like to rewind to Sunday, July 12. I have played piano since the first grade. I'm not very good but really enjoy playing - particularly more traditional church music and hymns. Consequently, I was really excited by the opportunity to play at two church services - Crandon and Argonne UMC. Both did not have a piano player available for that Sunday (Argonne has piano player 1 out of 4 Sundays; St. Luke's 3 out of 4) so I thought it would be a good opportunity to step out of the comfort zone a bit. The music at St. Luke's in Crandon worked out fine. However, at Argonne, I made a bit of a mistake by playing the Doxology instead of the Gloria Patri. No one seemed to mind. Actually, after the service, a lady actually asked if I could stay permanently.

Anyway, we needed marshmallows for the evening campfire, so Tim and I went into town to the grocery store. Upon leaving, we took off to locate a hiking trail that I thought was nearby. I turned down a road and drove for 2 or 3 miles and decided that it wasn't the correct road. So we turned around and headed back toward the highway. We pulled up behind a truck at boat at the stop sign and the guy driving the truck gets out and comes back toward the car. I wasn't sure what was going on so I rolled down the window.

"Aren't you the piano player from this morning?" he asked.

He goes on to say thanks for playing and that we looked lost. He said that he didn't know of a trail nearby but told us to keep driving straight for 8 miles to the National Forest-Ed's Lake. We found the trails and headed back to the cabin.

The next day, the whole group went hiking at the trails.

It was just kind of amazing because this relatively simple experience reminded me that God is at work. He puts the pieces together. He connects the dots.

He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross. (1 Colossians 1:18-20)