By Josh Kerby
I recently went to a Wilderness First Responder Recertification class to recertify my Wilderness First Responder (WFR). Every two years I take this class to brush up on my medical skills to stay competent in the field. It’s amazing how quickly you can forget something over time and it disappears from our memory. As wilderness guides, we go through a lot of training each year so we are prepared for the summer. We train for our rock climbing trips, peak hikes, and we even do swift water rescue training so we are prepared for rescue situations on the river.
To become a raft guide, there is a lot of training we must go through. We are required to have 50 hours of training on the river before we are eligible to be certified guides. When I had 50 hours of training under my belt, I had logged 177 miles. I however, was certified several trips later. I logged 572 miles before I was certified. That’s a lot of miles on the river. It is crucial for us to be well prepared as guides so we are ready when things don’t go according to the plan. It is equally important for us to continually practice these skills so we don’t forget something.
We can’t expect to know something if
we don’t put in the time to learn it
This has got me thinking about how this declination of information affects us in other areas of our lives. More specifically how this affects our spiritual lives. I will go through phases when I am not in my Bible as much as I should be and it starts to collect dust. It’s amazing how we can so easily stick something on a shelf and seem to forget about it. When I am not in my Bible regularly, I feel disconnected and start to lose my purpose. I don’t think any of us want to feel purposeless. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” In Christ, we have a purpose and we are to walk in the good works.
I think the most common reason I don’t get into the Bible is because of my pride. I seem to convince myself that I don’t need to be in the Bible. It is in these times when I get lost and I realize how helpless I am without God. It is in these times I take my eyes off of God thinking, “I got this, I can do this” and God simply shows me I can’t. I realize how much I need God in my life, to guide me and give me strength.
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13
Going back to our training reminds me how much training and preparing we do before we head out on an adventure. I wouldn’t want to go into the mountains without a map and not preparing for the hike. We all want to go on that big adventure, but we need to prepare for it. This is true in our spiritual lives as well. If we don’t put in the effort to have that relationship with Jesus, we won’t. He wants to have that relationship with us, but we have to want it and put in the effort as well.
Just like anything in life, we have to work at it with a slow and steady pace.
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