The WOFOYO Podcast
The WOFOYO Podcast
Walking Out The Word In Glacier National Park (Part 1)
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You can be the dependable one, the helpful one, the “blessing” everybody praises and still feel strangely alone. We sit with that tension and make a case for something most of our culture avoids: solitude. Not isolation. Not ghosting people. Real, chosen quiet that pulls you out of the noise long enough to get honest with God and hear Him again.
We talk about what it looks like when the spirit feels vexed, when church sounds feel muffled, and when even encouragement grates because you’re simply drained. From Jacob and Moses to Elijah and John, and especially Jesus Himself, we trace the pattern of withdrawing to pray and why it matters for Christian spiritual growth. We also get practical about boundaries, because when you try to get alone, people often push back, sometimes in the name of “support,” and you have to decide what obedience looks like.
Then we take it outdoors. A Glacier National Park trip becomes a lived parable: six hikes in five days, 57.3 miles, 20,400 feet of elevation gain, minimal cell reception, and the kind of beauty that doesn’t need an iconic landmark to be unforgettable. Along the way we unpack lessons from favor, fatigue, wildlife encounters, and the way creation preaches without saying a word. If you’ve been carrying everyone else, this is your reminder to recharge and return rooted.
https://wofoyo.org/ #wofoyo
Solitude Vs Feeling Isolated
SPEAKER_01This episode has been brought to you by Solitude, the official supplement of the WoeFOYO podcast. You've been doing everything you're supposed to. You're there for your family and friends. You're an asset at your job. You help people in your community, even helping out in church. Everyone is telling you how big of a blessing you are. So why do you feel so isolated? Alone. Friends, you need solitude. There comes a time when the job leaves you drained. The family life seems like a merry-go-around. The sermons leave you hollow, the praise and worship is muffled, and life is a blur. Even words of praise and encouragement seem like fingernails on a chalkboard. In the words of the late John Prine, you need to blow up your TV, throw away the paper, move into the country, and try and find Jesus on your own. You need solitude. There's nothing like solitude to diffuse and dilute the distractions all around you and recharge those batteries that have been drained. By doing it on your own power. Oh yes, you have. There's nothing like actually being alone to let you know that you're not. The wind has a voice. Learn or relearn to hear it. Rediscover what it's like to fellowship with and be empowered by the Spirit of the Living God. Jacob, Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, John the Apostle. Even Jesus got alone with the Father in solitude. Solitude has a way of removing excuses and facilitates relationship and honesty with the Lord. Get reacquainted with the Lord, and only the Lord, so that he can show you who you really are and what his true purpose is for you. Solitude. Get lost so you can return to your first love, Jesus Christ, and find yourself.
Burnout And The Need To Withdraw
SPEAKER_01When I recorded the last little short, I was about at my wit's end. Don't get me wrong, me and the Lord were still good. Me and people was done. Absolutely done. A couple different reasons. One of the main ones is I usually would take a vacation in June in two weeks, and for some reason this year I ended up taking it in August, and it just seemed like everything got to be a little bit much. And needed to get some peace. So had some things planned out. You know, I've been doing hiking the last few years now. And one of the places I wanted to go was Glacier National Park. A lot of the ones I'd been to, Bones you had already been to. This is one, there was one we haven't. Let me tell you, one of the interesting things, and and put it put it like this, we'll get into a little bit more of the park itself. People be like, what in the world does this have to do with woofoyo with getting in the word for yourself? Sometimes you've got to walk out the word. The park was amazing. Everything was cracked up to be. I'm going to have a few criticisms of the park, a few lessons learned. You see me look down if you're watching the video part of it on YouTube when it comes out a week or so later. You'll see me look down a lot at a uh notebook that Bones got me for Christmas. It helps to write things down. I'll tell you this. Um, I did six hikes in five days, and all in all, I put in uh I finally did the math on all the hikes added up, according to a little Garmin watch I have, and it ended up being 57.3 miles and 20,400 foot elevation gain. And when I tell you that the first two days, that was a 14-mile hike and a 12-mile hike, that was just walking away frustration. Frustrated at what? I really don't know. Other than I needed to get away and get some peace and get along with the Lord. That's what I mean. Sometimes you just got to walk out the word for yourself. Uh, you don't just get in the word for yourself, but you got to walk it out. Uh Jesus would withdraw to pray. And sometimes you just need to get alone and have a talk with the Lord, even if that takes you 14 miles, even if that takes you 12 and a half miles, even if you're basically got to get yourself to the point of exhaustion, to where you feel like you can be honest with the Lord at times. I know that's probably not a very spiritual way of putting it, but uh, I'm I'm talking about me. You know, but but there's times you you just gotta uh bones, we've talked about that about prayer too, though. You know, there's times that we prayed till we were exhausted and finally go, well, Lord, here's what I was really trying to say. I'm done. And he goes, Okay, that's what I'm looking for. Here's your answer. I had it all along, and I'm going to give it to you in two days.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_02Yep. God has a sense of humor like that sometimes. Yeah. It's it's weird. Um national parks can be can be kind of like a church.
SPEAKER_00Um I'll I'll get into that in a little bit. But yeah, man, sometimes you just gotta get out. Uh I think the uh the the spirit gets vexed, gets grieved, um, you you just you just kind of get irritated and gotta get alone. You gotta get alone with the Lord um so that you can get clear of all that white noise.
Boundaries When People Push Back
SPEAKER_00Um and in our society today, that's uh counterintuitive. Um, because we live in a society where you're taught and told that being alone is bad.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh so that's kind of uh, you know, it's kind of counterintuitive to what we're being taught, told.
SPEAKER_01And and even in the church.
unknownYeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00No, no man, no man is an island. Well, not trying to be an island, but sometimes you gotta get alone.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. G Jesus wasn't an island.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01He surrounded himself with disciples, and he would get alone at the appropriate time so he could deal not just not just with the disciples, which I'm sure that took a took its own effort, uh, probably presented its own challenges, more intimate, more close challenges, uh, probably a different kind of frustration at times, a closer form of frustration at times. Because how many times? Have you not understood these things? You know, you see Jesus talk about, you know, and whereas when he's dealing with multitudes, now that's a whole different, that's a whole different set of demands, probably a different set of frustrations at times. Uh and you're like, oh, Jesus gets frustrated. Okay. Granted, Jesus is divine, he's the word made flesh, he's the son of the living God, he's led by the Holy Spirit. And if you also realize that he's took human form, he's fully man. Fully man, and you just read the text, you go, he's frustrated. Yeah. There's times his patience is worn thin.
SPEAKER_02Uh and and then we want to condemn ourselves for not being perfect, which is dumb.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Re really, really dumb because we're putting ourselves on a level above Christ, really.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh when we do that. But you you look at it, and and just to deal with, I mean, with with the with the multitudes, he's dealing with you know, having to feed people, and then he's going, You're only following me because you got fed. I'm I'm the real bread of life, but you following me because you got loaves and fishes. And so so I I get it. Uh one of the things that we've also talked about is when you're anointed to do something, when God's hand is upon you to do something, and you're walking in it, uh, the anointing is sexy. Um so not not only can you have women flirting with you if you're a guy, you know, uh guys wishing that you was their lady, if if if you were a woman, uh there can be misplaced affections, but the biggest thing is it it puts a demand on you. You you know, you're you're anointed for a reason. Um so you you gotta be true to that path. But at the same time, if you don't get alone and get recharged and find time to be at one with your creator, if you don't get your alone with Jesus time, uh things go awry.
SPEAKER_02And you know, one of the blessings about it is uh you know, this is a small enough platform that C dub messes up. Oh, that's just C dub.
SPEAKER_01Anybody who knows me go, yeah, that's about par for the course. Uh doesn't mean he's any less sincere. Now, if if we had a 10,000 member church, then it'd be some big to-do all over social media. There'd be the gossip rooms, the chat rooms, gossip rooms, you know, there there'd be all these other avenues by which our shortcomings could be exposed and examined by the ecclesia and the elders of the church to see how we're wrong. We're not living up to our profession of faith. You know, there's all that stuff that can go on. But one of the blessings about it is we can just be honest about who we are and be honest about being agitated, being honest about uh sometimes the demands warrant that you go out and leave all that behind. And that also keeps you from making an idol of what you're called to do, versus worshiping the one that called you to do it.
SPEAKER_02Getting alone is is uh it's extremely important, but it can also be very, very hard to do.
SPEAKER_00Um you'll sometimes you'll know just you'll know the need. You'll you'll know that there's a need to get alone. Not only do you feel the irritation and the agitation in your spirit, but you'll also see um there'll be those those blocks, there'll be there'll be roadblocks um to you getting alone. There are you'll try to get alone and people will insert themselves into your situation. Um you'll have relationships, whether it's uh intimate relationship with a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife, or it's a family relationship, but you have relationships that uh will get involved and and try to use a relationship against you. Uh why you need to be alone. Uh, you know, I I want to be with you and support you. No, I gotta do this by myself. Um all these roadblocks that pop up, uh sometimes these can be good indicators that uh God's trying to get you alone and the enemy's trying to uh trying to hoodwink you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And one of the biggest challenges of that is I'm I'm talking about personally, because I know for the last three, four weeks at work, I was probably a bear. Uh and I usually not. Usually a bright ray of sunshine in a in a not so positive environment sometimes. And uh I'm just done, you know. But what one of the things you got to watch out too is you are dealing with people. And it's funny that you mentioned that because I had those exact same situations happen and I had to establish some boundaries. But if you're not careful and you handle it wrong, um you can cause the roadblocks or proposed roadblocks to become stumbling blocks.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And in and that's dangerous territory. We don't want to become, yeah, we we don't want to be have those things be stumbling blocks because then we can actually become a stumbling block to somebody else's faith.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01We don't want to do that, but there was uh I'll I'll just tell you quite truthfully, uh, there were three people who I'm either fond of or care or care very much about. Uh friends that are like family. Uh some other people I'm just one of their biggest cheerleaders. And guess what? They're asking me for advice. Uh there's people that I, you know, work with and and do some volunteer stuff with. And hey, could nope, not this week. This week, that stuff doesn't exist. Now I will give you a pointer. Hey, brother, are you available to talk? No. And I wasn't I wasn't fooling them like I can send you a couple text messages, but I'm on vacation, and you're gonna have to figure this out.
SPEAKER_02And yeah, and and let me tell you about Glacier National Park.
Why Glacier Feels Different
SPEAKER_02Most of it has no cell phone reception. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So unless you've got Wi-Fi calling and you're at a place, or unless you got Starlink or something like that, you're you're not making a call. Um, I did purchase a satellite map, GPS map thing, and I could send emergency messages simply because I knew there was no, there was no coverage. Um I'm exaggerating that a little bit. When I say minimal, minimal is probably uh being generous uh when it comes to the coverage there. Uh that being said, you know, one of the things we discussed, you know, as far as the park itself, is I have to admit that this might be the most beautiful national park that I've been to. Uh I think Grand Teton gives it a run for his money, but Grand Teton is so compact compared to Glacier. And the one of the things that stood out though, is although just all this amazing scenery and the hugeness of it all, and how much you could see that it's huge. Um, Teton, for me, there were parts of it where you're just up and you realize that you're in something huge, but you can't see the rest of the park. Yeah. Just the way, just the way the layout is. Uh, but there's not a really defining other than the fact that there's glaciers there, there's no defining landmark that I could say, oh, that's glacier. I go, that's beautiful. Where is it in this glacier? You know, uh when I went to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, man, Yellowstone is old faithful as Grand Prismatic Springs. It's that river running through it. It's all these things that define Yellowstone. Uh the bison. You know, the the wildlife there was one of the defining things. But everybody knows Old Faithful. Everybody knows about Grand Prismatic Springs. Grand Tetons, Teton Mountains, there they are.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01The little chapel is well known worldwide.
SPEAKER_02And even Yosemite, you know, you got half done, iconic.
SPEAKER_01And not too far down the way, you got El Capitan, Alex Honnell, Free Solo, just iconic landmarks. And maybe I'm saying this out of ignorance for any national park enthusiast that wants to jump my case for saying this. There was really nothing defining about glacier, but it's probably prettier than them all.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01So that that that also kind of let me know what would you rather have? Would you rather have the beauty and the peace and the tranquility, or would you rather have the notoriety in life?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's there's something to be said about a place like Glacier. Um, what's sad about Glacier is there's fewer glaciers now than there were 50 years ago.
SPEAKER_01Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Um they are s they are slowly receding. But uh when you study Glacier National Park and uh how it was created uh throughout history and everything, it's it's very interesting. But but you're right, the uh there's not much notoriety, there's no icon, you know, it just is. Uh which I think's pretty cool. Um because there's a lot of things in life that just are. But if you're willing to stop and look around, you'll realize they're they're pretty cool too. Um said a while ago, national parks can be like can be kind of like a church. Um you've got folks there that are that are uh all in. They are national park enthusiasts. They they it's their goal to hit all the national parks in the country. Um they're all about the beauty and the environment. Um they're they're they're all in. You have some folks in national parks that are um that are just stopping by to check it off their list. Um and uh, you know, at certain times in their life they have talking points. I've been here, I've been there. Um they weren't there long enough to really know anything about it or enjoy it, but but they can mark it off their list. Um you have some folks there who were just there with the crowd, and they don't care if they're there or not. Uh they're just along for the ride. Um much like folks uh in church sometimes. We have believers that are all in, um, you know, true to the faith. We have believers that are um church hopping to see how it is, see how this one is, that one is, chasing a blessing, so to speak. And then we have then we have those that are in church on Sunday and really don't want to be there, but uh but but they had to, so they're there. Um yeah, National Park is is is a pretty cool place to people watch, uh, along with the scenery.
SPEAKER_01There's definitely different kinds of people. Glacier was no different.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_01Um I will say this at the risk of sounding insensitive. Yes, we're aware, Ray Stevens, Jesus loves the little children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they're precious in his sight. All right. That being said, I saw more Americans in Glacier National Park than any other national park. I know I've commented on before all the people that look like fit Americans back, you know, especially over in Yosemite last year, and was European.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01They wasn't Americans. Um the the ones you go. What Isle of Walmart? Did you did you come out of, you know, American? But all the ones that look like classic Americans from the 50s and 60s, European, usually some kind of uh Nordic country, you know, uh very, very health inclined. Uh got to see uh um just some different kinds of things. Um got in there, really was going to try and do something my first day, and glad I didn't. Um it was beautiful. Uh, you know, from I stayed in the southern end of a place called Apgar Village, and just right on this thing, Lake McDonald's, just beautiful, great scenery. Um, they had had wildfires there the week before, which uh, you know, you're I'm I know you're aware of. Um, and we had that effect one day, you know, uh out of the time that I was there, uh, it affected things. That would that was actually in the afternoon of Wednesday, you could tell uh there was a haze. And uh people in LA just like, well, what are you talking about? It's like at all time over here. Um but just kind of got centered, got things laid out, got everything prepped, bought some uh bought some water, which I probably didn't need to do, still didn't hurt. Um basically got everything laid out for the week, got an agenda laid out as far as I mean, kind of had that planned, which hikes I wanted to do, and uh really, which was all the hikes I I wanted to do, maybe minus one, and just one enough time. And I I that one probably would have would have hurt me if I'd tried it. Uh, just because it would have been at the end of the week and the amount I've already covered. But anyway, I said I get up the next morning, get things set up. I will say this no paid advertisement, uh, rental car company, because it was a two-day trip. I got two weeks of vacation. I didn't want to spend four days of vacation on the road. So I flew out there, Kalispell, beautiful uh little town, little old western town, in a modernity in it. But uh anyway, 30 minutes to the park from Kalispell. I mean, it was 30 37 minutes to the place where I was staying.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01And so uh nice flight out. Um just you you go from I went from St. Louis, Lambert Airport, which is a decent size airport, right? Uh to O'Hare, which is a monster, to Calisbell, which has five gates.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Big difference.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Big difference. I like Kalispell a lot better. Uh, but anyway, uh let me let me tell you this.
Favor, Logistics, And Park Access
SPEAKER_01I will say that the one thing that has really marked this trip more than anything has been the favor of the Lord. Uh I will say this. Thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord. I got shown favor out of favor and more favor, and the next day it's even more favor. So they had this thing. Rent a car. Okay. Who knows? You could end up some subcompact, you could choose. I'm going with the cheapest I could find. And the cheapest I could find was the mystery car. Special deal with the app I use. The mystery car. This thing's probably going to be some stupid smart car, which you know, it will. I get in there. Oh, you get a you get a Mazda SR CRV, or you get a Mazda, this or that, or you're oh, you're getting a little Subaru, or you get in, and they get up to me. Oh, uh, Mr. Wernberg, yep, you chose that program.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Here's a Ford Bronco.
SPEAKER_01Full size. Nice. Let me tell you something. I'd been wanting to drive one of them things, uh, given how new it is. Anybody knows me, know I drive used vehicles. I'm I'm not buying a new one, not paying full retail, not doing that. Uh, let somebody else take the depreciation. Also, the more bells and whistles they have, the more things can go wrong. But let me tell you, that Ford Bronco is a nice vehicle. And that's favor. And I thoroughly enjoyed. Took me not very long at all to get used to it. Biggest thing was learning how ever where everything was. Uh, the the window, the window buttons are in the center console.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01That was that was a little different. But other than that, great vehicle. Um, I had a checklist of things to do, and by God's grace, I was able to get them all done. So they they have some new regulations, change of administration. The way the parks running different. They got this one trail that's iconic, though. It's called the Skyline Trail. And then they have this thing called the garden wall that you can do to the Grinnell Glacier overlook or you're overlooking that glacier from the opposite end. And they say the two hardest uh hikes in the park, maybe one other in that area of their big hikes is the skyline trail if you do the garden wall. But to get there, there's a place called Logan Point, so, or Logan Pass. And there's now a three-hour parking thing. Well, that whole hike's going to take anywhere from seven to nine hours on average. Um, so you put in for the lottery, you know, I got one. Uh got a got a bus pass, they put a little wristband on you and stuff like that, and you can catch it back, a little shuttle. It's not a bus, it's a 11 passenger big van. And they got all these people in line.
SPEAKER_02They got 20 people in line going to Logan Pass. And they got room for one more. Are there any singles? Anyone just by themselves? So I go from the 20th, 21st or whatever, to here I'm on the first shuttle.
SPEAKER_03There you go.
SPEAKER_01Catch it. Boom, right there. Um same thing once I was done.
SPEAKER_02Hey, we got room for a single. There I am.
SPEAKER_01Jump ahead of about 13 people. And there we go. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for the favor. Um, but but let me tell you, it's a beautiful
Hard Hikes And Close Wildlife
SPEAKER_01trail. One of the things that's iconic about that, it is a very narrow trail. Uh, if you are not sure of your footing, do not take this trail. Uh, there's four iconic animals in Glacier, and saw two of them that first day. That's a 12-mile hike. The the thing is, about halfway you reach this garden wall, and when you do the garden wall, it is basically half a mile and you climb a thousand feet.
SPEAKER_02Just getting it.
SPEAKER_00That is, that's it's pretty aggressive.
SPEAKER_01Yep, and it's narrow. It's it's going into Mordor. Is it worth it? Yes. Was I exhausted? Yes. And then the the weirdest thing is that you're actually hiking a lot of this trail downhill if you're going from Logan Pass. And so I'm exhausted, did a little refuel, hit the rest of it. And uh let me tell you, going downhill still, although the muscles weren't that bad. And I had had a coworker, she had told me, her and her husband and her family had been there a couple of weeks prior to, and man, I got bruises under my toenails on my big toes. Just stopping, trying to catch a foot in this stuff because you're going downhill. But uh anyway, I was about as exhausted as can be, but still got shown favor. Guess what? I'm still frustrated. I want to write things in my notebook. Nope. It's still there. I was thankful. I knew I was doing the right thing. So wake up next day, do something called Grinnell Glacier. Absolutely beautiful. Another strenuous hike. It was about 12.5 back and forth, good amount of elevation gain. It was over 2,000 feet of elevation gain there too.
SPEAKER_02And it's raining. I get to the point, and it's raining.
SPEAKER_01Um it's just like, hey, you got your destination. It's windy and rainy. And uh on top of all that, I had just acquired a brand new woodland camo, just like the BDUs I used to wear back when I was in the army. I just acquired a new boonie cap.
SPEAKER_02And the wind took that sucker and launched it straight into that glacier water.
SPEAKER_01That being said, it was beautiful, it was refreshing. Um you passed three lakes. You know what one of the things about glacier that they talk about more than any of the land features is the wildlife. Now, that first day there, I saw grizzly bear. Had a good conversation with this family I met out of out of Kentucky, western Kentucky. Um they had a son that's either he's either going to be a starting quarterback or a backup quarterback for Tulane University. So that's where I went to school my freshman year. Uh had a nice little talk. But he's going, hey, bear, bear, bear, bear, bear, and here comes this adolescent grizzly. He's he ain't a kid, but he's he's getting there, and that bear don't care. He's coming straight up the path and finally decides not to. But you know, again, if you're within uh 50 feet of a grizzly bear, it's pretty dang cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01It was a good day to die. If you gotta go out, man. That's gonna go viral. Yeah. So and and not too far from there, uh, when I was doing the garden, that was right before the garden wall. And then at the garden wall on that first day, bighorn sheep, one of the more impressive animals I have ever seen.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01In a different way, that bighorn sheep was just as big a threat as that bear was. You got you got the notion if his bighorn sheep had his mind set to it, he could knock you straight off that mountain.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01And so there were several bighorn sheep, the animal I definitely saw the most of, uh, other than maybe chipmunks or squirrels. But let me tell you something. When you got a mountain and an angle like that, and it's all that loose shale, them things ran down that mountain like nothing. And I'm talking about running six, seven foot in front of me. Looked at me, I'm like, you you got it, bud. And they just sure footed, never stumbled, nothing. It's uh our Lord knew something when he was designing certain animals. It's interesting to see them in their element, and then so it it also got me to thinking, you know, um, if you see another created being made by our Creator in their environment doing what they're supposed to be doing. And even it even Proverbs talks about that, you know. Uh there's certain animals that if you see them, you're just like, man, it's awe-inspiring. And then he says in the end, in the the way of a man with a mate, they're just too wonderful for me to comprehend. Um, and it so he lists all these animals. I think a serpent was one, you know, just seeing how a thing could move. Uh, but there was all these different animals that he lists. But I got the thing about this, you know, that thing is in its element, and there's just a beauty of these things doing what they were designed to do. How much more so when we start doing what God's designed us to do? Is it any less impressive, maybe even more? Who knows?
Creation, Purpose, And True Quiet
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's the glory of God is man fully alive. Uh phrase commonly uh uh attributed to Irenaeus of lions. And what that means what he's talking about there is just what you're saying. Um man being fully alive, man doing what he's called to do in the environment that he was given to do it in. Um we wanted to put it in a different context. Um I think Miles Monroe talked about it this way. Um when a creature when a creature is uh doing what he was created to do in the environment that he was created uh g was given to do it in, he's giving glory to God. When an eagle is in flight, he's giving he's giving glory to God. Because that because birds were made to fly. Um a bird that won't fly is not it's not giving glory to God.
SPEAKER_02Um for lack for lack of better words.
SPEAKER_00And so just like you were saying, when we when we fulfill our purpose, when we do what we're created to do, and I'm not talking about ministerial callings and stuff like that. I'm I'm talking about just simple calling of humanity. When we do when we do what we were created to do in the environment that we were given to do it in, um that is a praise to the Lord. That is that is glorifying God. So man, being a dad, being the best dad that you can be, uh, and creating the the right environment to to be that dad, um, being that best husband that you can be, uh, providing that uh best environment that you can, all those things, those are, you know, those things glorify God. Um sometimes it's so easy to get wrapped around the axle on ministries and callings, and and we want to try to separate that from our daily life, uh, you know, and and and I don't think God wants us to do that. No. I think he wants it all wrapped up in one and we can fulfill our calling, our ministerial callings, um, at the same time as we are glorifying God in doing what he's called us to do in our daily life, too.
SPEAKER_01Can you be a can you be a friend?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Can you help somebody out that needs it without expecting some big return? Uh can you uh matter of fact, um, you know, I I didn't listen to sermon one the the whole time I was out there. I wanted quiet. I didn't want music.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01Um matter of fact, I didn't even play a song on on the uh um on the uh um you know that they have the thing where your phone sinks up with the yeah, didn't want to listen to a song. Uh I didn't listen to a song till last day there. Uh after all my hiking was done. And uh I'll explain that here in a little bit, but um I wanted quiet. Um there there was a podcast come on, and I just go these people sound like the most miserable people on planet earth right now, and I'm not gonna let that infect me. You know, and they're having a debate. Oh, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. We need to have these discussions. They're two miserable people, and I ain't let I ain't letting that misery spread to me. Um the uh just everybody shut up. If it ain't a legitimate human interaction, I didn't want it. Uh the the verse in verses in Proverbs chapter 30, verses 18 and 19, which is not a proverb of Solomon. Uh this is someone else. There are three things which are too wonderful for me, four which I do not understand. The way of the eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship in the middle of a sea, and the way of a man with a virgin. One of the verses that just kept on coming to mind my whole time there was the heavens proclaim the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands. And and you could just see that there's this design by the Creator. How he what he used to make that it's unreal. And then you see the creatures that are that are within that park. Uh, I mentioned that second day as I'm going a lot a lot of water hazards and slick rock.
SPEAKER_02Uh, on that second day, I was within 40 yards of a bull moose. By far the most dangerous animal in that park, if it chose to be.
SPEAKER_01Even the bear ain't winning against that sucker. Uh, about the only one that might give it some comp is the one you would never see, and that's a mountain lion, because if you come across that, it's probably swinging down and breaking your neck.
SPEAKER_00That's the crazy thing about the wildlife that you see in the national parks. Um, you see them in the books, you see them on TV and stuff like that, but it's a totally different thing to get out there in the environment and see them up close and personal. Um because now you're in their backyard and and they have the upper hand. Um they they can have you anytime they want you. Uh they're they're not pets, they're not your friends. Um you're you're in their world.
SPEAKER_01Crocodile hunter right there, man.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's that's a different that's a different feeling if it if it ever uh crosses your mind or sinks in, uh, you know, because you go to the zoo, you see something, you know, it's just not the same. Um, but when you're out there in their environment, um you you become small in a big way.
SPEAKER_02Very much so.
SPEAKER_01Um but it's a beautiful thing to behold. Man, it was beautiful. And it's just going and grazing, it's rubbing its rubbing them antlers all up in the up in the brush, all up in the trees. And you know, if if it was and again, there was more mountain sheep, but look, let me tell you, that that was a slick, that was a slick path. At times there were there's three different lakes that you that you see before you get to the last one, and you're just you're exhausted, you've done your climb, uh, it's doable, but it's amazing. You you get to see how the forces of nature work, and you realize that this is all created by the word of God with his plan in mind, and you go, Dear Lord, this is great. Um also on the way back, took some time off and not in the glacier one, cooled my feet off in one of the lakes. There's something to be said about cooling your feet off, man. During a hike, that that ice cold water, and is there any relevance to this spiritually? Hell, I don't know. Let me tell you, when you when you've been humping it and you stick your feet in some ice cold water, uh, or just 50 degree water, that that right there, man, there ain't no more swelling. It it does it instantly.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_01It's down. It didn't take a couple minutes, and my feet were brand new. I just took a break. I I could have been done with that hike half hour before. And I just took time to get some sun and uh just relax. That's when I knew that I'd probably walk my frustrations out. You know, I was I was finally able to relax.
Next Time And Final Charge
SPEAKER_01Hey folks, thanks for listening. We are going to continue talking about lessons learned from Glacier National Park in our next episode. You can always check us out at wolffolio.org or subscribe on Apple Podcasts Bot A Fire Auto, or check us out on YouTube. Remember, folks, if you're going to grow, you got a woof folio. Get in the word for yourself.