Survival Guide for the Wilderness

A while back, Bay and I followed a survivor-type-televison series on the History Chanel.

I'm pretty sure we watched about 7 seasons in a row, and I found it informative and interesting.

However, I'm hoping I never, in my lifetime, have to use the skills with which I became acquainted, because I am alone and trying to survive... 

Titled "ALONE," the series tracked 10 individuals dropped off in various locations out in the wild. 

Each person chronicled their journey (via videos) for the program, all in diverse situations with limited equipment.

Truly, it was an exercise in endurance. 

One of the ways contestants attempted to provide food for themselves was fishing with a "gill net."

The net was placed in the down-running-current of a river and as the water rushed through, the fish (hopefully) get trapped. 

Assuredly, it often seemed that the winner of the contest ($500,000) ended up being the one who ate the best. 

In fact, in one of the seasons, a fellow caught a tremendous amount of fish, dried them, hung them about his self-constructed-shelter, and all appeared as if he was destined to win.

However, he ended up being forced to leave the show when the doctors (who check in on participants at regular intervals) discovered he was "starving to death."

He had all the food he needed to survive...he simply didn't eat!!!

XXXXX

Last weekend I spoke at a women's conference in Dallas, TX.

The theme of the retreat was "reset."

The goal: to provide some tools that can be utilized at any time of year to do a "hard reset" in some aspect of life with a begin-again in mind (while this could be any type of reset, primarily I focused on spiritual do-overs). 

We all need them from time to time. 

In the first session we talked about rest.

Scripture is scattered with instructions to rest.

In fact, the fourth commandment is just that - a directive to take the time every six days to rest (see this blog published on December 28.)

The Lord is pretty clear:

There is no reset without rest.

Period.

Exclamation mark.

I've also blogged recently on this next tool, which is "remember," however, I want to add a P.S. to those posts.

When the fourth commandment is repeated in Deuteronomy, the Lord adds a one-more-thing to our "resetting:"

REMEMBER!

1) Remember where you were and what you were without the Lord's intervention.

2) Remember who your God is (YHWH) - the I AM EVERYTHING YOU NEED!

3) Remember how He came alongside and rescued/delivered/redeemed your life.

4) Remember His mighty hand and outstretched arm (metaphorical reminders of His power, love, mercy and grace) in the middle of your stories...

REMEMBER!!!

It's so important in every reset. 

There's no reset without rest.

There is no reset without remembering these very important things about our relationship with the Lord.

Why?

There is no hope in tomorrow without remembering our history with our God; and, there is no ability to endure without hope!

Y'all, we won't take time to remember if we don't have time to stop in the midst of resting in order to do so. 

In the resting, we must look for our God in the memories that are caught in the net and SEE HIM THERE!

This will be key for those times when we feel ALONE.

It will be crucial for our endurance in the spiritual wildernesses of life.

It will be most critical that we take the fish, dry them, hang them about our shelters and then EAT OF THEM!

Don't starve yourselves to death spiritually because you have forgotten these instructions from the Lord.

EAT!