The photo above was taken by my daughter at the end of our recent trip to Switzerland. She texted it to me, I think to capture the hotel at night. I almost deleted it because it was so dark and hard to see. However, upon a closer look, unbeknownst to her, I could see the photo captured three very meaningful themes in my life from the last couple of years. I’m hoping to recount each theme in a series of posts in the coming days. This is Part 1 of 3.
My husband led student trips to Switzerland (and Italy) for about 15 years (around 2003-2018), so it’s very near to his heart. In 2010, I met him at the end of one of those trips, but it rained the whole time, and I couldn’t see the mountains! He also had an injury, which was challenging, that I wrote about here. So it was great to return to these beloved places and visit them again, this time with our daughter. (Our son, who wasn’t able to go with us, had been many years ago with the students, but she had never been.)
Because my husband loves to travel and has done so extensively, he is our planner. He knows the areas and prepares thorough itineraries. In this case, when we first started talking about Switzerland, I looked online to a town he had mentioned, saw a hotel that captured my attention, and thought it was pretty. He said, “Let’s go there.” And just like that, it was settled. We would stay in one place and go out from there on day trips in Switzerland and France.
In the weeks leading up to our trip, I was studying Habakkuk with a Bible study by Dannah Gresh. It concluded in the days leading up to our trip with Habakkuk 3:19:
God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
Many years ago, the Lord had revealed Himself to me as my strength, so that’s always a special reminder.
Simultaneously, we had deer visit our backyard. We would watch them leap through the barbed wire fence at the back of the yard with great agility. They were out in the street when cars came, and they leapt through the yard running from the danger. With these visuals, I could understand more about “feet like the deer’s”!
I shared in our family text that the deer matched my Bible reading, and my mom said it reminded her of the book Hinds’ Feet on High Places. I considered buying the book for the trip, but I decided against it. However, the day before, my mom brought me a copy she had, so I took it along.
To reach our hotel, we had to travel up a mountain on a narrow, winding road, often without visibility of what was coming around the corner. It was a stressful drive. Upon arriving at the hotel, my fears came into play. What was the altitude? Could we manage that road up to it over and over again? Where were we?! How had we not realized its location on such a high place? Why did I ever suggest this place?! How could we have missed doing proper research?! You could say that I was “Much-Afraid.”
I began reading Hinds‘ Feet on High Places as part of my morning devotional time while we were there. It was unbelievable how precisely it felt written for this exact moment in my life and all of its circumstances. The book, based on Habakkuk 3:19, is about the transformation of the main character, “Much-Afraid,” who learns to live with strength in the Lord (rather than fears), is taken to the High Places with the Lord, and is given a new name.
When she sets out, leaving the Valley of Humiliation for the High Places, the Shepherd provides her with two companions, Suffering and Sorrow. Much-Afraid gasps:
“I can’t go with them! I can’t! I can’t! O my Lord Shepherd, why do you do this to me? How can I travel in their company? It is more than I can bear… Couldn’t you have given Joy and Peace to go with me, to strengthen me and encourage me and help me on the difficult way? I never thought you would do this to me!”
After her tears and outburst, the Shepherd asks gently:
“Joy and Peace. Are those the companions you would choose for yourself? You remember your promise, to accept the helpers that I would give, because you believed that I would choose the very best possible guides for you. Will you trust me, Much-Afraid? Will you go with them, or do you wish to turn back to the Valley…?”
Much-Afraid looks into the face of the Shepherd and knows she cannot doubt him or refuse. She will go with Sorrow and Suffering. The Shepherd adds:
“Fear not, Much-Afraid, only believe. I promise that you shall not be put to shame. Go with Sorrow and Suffering, and if you cannot welcome them now, when you come to the difficult places where you cannot manage alone, put your hand in theirs confidently and they will take you exactly where I want you to go.”
Along the journey to the High Places, Much-Afraid learns lessons of “Acceptance-with-Joy,” “Bearing-in-Love,” of humility, forgiveness, and love. She is transformed from limping to leaping. She is renamed “Glory and Grace.” She is able to return to the Valley to do the Lord’s work, now strengthened by Him.
These are only a few highlights of this beautiful book, without giving away too much such that you couldn’t read and enjoy it too!
Returning to Habakkuk 3:19, I remembered the Lord God is my strength, He makes my feet like the deer’s to tread on my high places, and I return to the last sentence, “To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.” If you study Habakkuk, you also see him go from questions and wrestling to embracing the God he can trust. It seems to end with a hymn that he has written to be sung, with instruments.
As I thought of transformation in my own life, I was reminded that my name means “Joyful Song” or “Joyful Spirit.” In fact, it’s a diminutive form or feminine counterpart to the name Charles, meaning “Strength” or free-man. Though I often live as “Much-Afraid,” the Lord calls me to live in His Strength, to sing His song, to be full of Joy. Could I be transformed as well, as I go with Him to the High Places?
I have stood in awe of the Lord, how He gave me the visual of the deer in advance, how He unexpectedly took us literally up on high place where my fears were exposed, how He gave me a book that was written precisely for me in that moment.
And to my further amazement, at the end of Hinds’ Feet on High Places, when reading the author’s personal story and background, I discovered the author Hannah Hurnard had written it during a 3-week visit to Switzerland in 1949! She shared how the story came about, about the Alps, even small things like her fears of riding the gondola, which I also had to conquer that week! On and on, I felt like my very life was being written about and spoken to in such particular ways!
Though it’s hard to see in the photo at the top of this post, this deer statue is in the foreground, in the middle, right in front of the white outdoor furniture. This is the first theme then of the photo: how the Lord enables us to tread on our high places.
We came back down to the valley after the trip. Life with all its ups and downs resumed. A few minor medical things and sickness. Sometimes after beauty in a high place, we do feel as though we hit the ground again with a thud! And yet, through it all, I praise and love the Lord, my Strength, who is so personal and loving, who teaches us how to tread on our high places as we trust in Him! Praise Him!
Praise Proclaimer 