A HIKE TO WHAT WE NEVER WANT TO HAVE
Renita and I took a two-night breather to Palm Springs, just one big mountain from my house.
We dropped into the desert towns south of the Springs by a locally famous road, the beautiful Palms to Pines Highway. While driving up the East-West main boulevard through the desert towns on the side of the mountains, I pointed out the most famous house in all of Coachella Valley, the Bob Hope House.
It sits elegantly on the highest hill in the area looking a little like a huge spaceship. I told Renita about my escapades when I was younger to try and cruise up for a view, but was turned away by guards and never got that glimpse.
While telling the story, I noticed a group of cars parked at the base of the road heading up the hill to the mansion. There was a familiar brown sign next to where they were parked. Huh. I whipped around and headed back. “What’d you see?” she asked.
“A sign. I think it’s a trailhead sign.” This was puzzling.
I pulled Into what I now realized was a parking lot. I saw the sign. It was trailhead. How odd; in the middle of town. I discovered that it was a trail that looped up and around the Bob Hope Mansion. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t drive to it, but I could hike to it!
I tossed the hike out to Renita. She’s a hiker; the game was on. We always like to get in a dose of a-little-tough hiking every day we are out on our own. It feels so good afterward and boy does the hotel room become an oasis when you’ve pushed a decent hike!
Up Up Up and Ugh!
I’m a bit of a trail snob. I’ve taken a bunch of them in the Western States. This was truly an ugly trail. It skirted along the base of the hill right in front of apartments and above a trailer park that needed some uumph. Even as it started up the hill, it bordered houses the whole way. Not my kind of hike.
It was up, up, and up some more. The view was of the city: and we heard traffic much of the way up. Geesh. Not a hike to peaceful beautiful places for sure!
Finally, we climbed to the point where we popped over a hill and there–200 yards in front of us–was the very famous Bob Hope House. To my surprise, the trail kept going closer and closer. We continued, coming within a mere 100 feet from the property. We could almost see in the windows. How bizarre; they block road access to the house and you can get so close on foot that you can pass notes through the fence.
We noticed no one was home. There was a driveway, but no cars in it. It looked like no one had lived there for a long time. Its large concrete structure looked old. We googled it on our phones to learn more about it while we ate a snack just above it.
The Hope House is 24,000 square feet and last sold for 50 million dollars. There were pictures of what it was like inside, We began to notice what we didn’t like. It was huge, with lots of cold concrete and old, too. It looked a little like an aged concrete prison you could get very lonely in.
We thought of Bob Hope and all his fame. We could go on little hikes, wade in pools in the palm oases. visit Trader Joes or any a shop in Palm Springs. Not Bob Hope. Anywhere he went, he’d draw a crowd. His fame became a prison, where he needed guards and fences needed to hide from people or he’d be swarmed.
We thought of the irony of it all. Bob Hope worked hard and gained worldwide fame and built the most elegant house in Palm Springs. But his great palace was kind-of like a prison. He had to stay there or be surrounded somewhere else. He missed so much of the beauty that we could freely walk or drive to anytime we wanted.
We both left that big house on the big hill that day dubbing the hike, “The hike to what we never would want to have!” It’s a view of an altar to man that is already decaying and empty.
A Whole Other Story
We left, got to our cheap, but ever-so-cute hotel, and decided the next day to do a hike our style.
We took off before the sun rose. The peaks to the east began as dark palm-tree-studded silhouettes that showcased the sun rising in its blazing orange light. To the west we had virgin desert wilderness full of desert bushes, desert trees, desert flowers, desert jackrabbits and even hummingbirds and an out-of-place heron. The sounds weren’t of traffic, but instead were God’s quite beautiful birds.
Less than 600 yards from the hotel, the mountains began the steep and majestic ascent to 9,000 feet. We didn’t have an old trailers, apartments and an old concrete building to look at; we were looking at a billion trillion tons of mountain that God was responsible for.
We got to read from the Word and share beautiful things God was doing in our lives. It was unforgettable, full of glory and love and profound beauty and joy. We made a choice; we decided which path we wanted to be on. We chose the one that showed us the Lord; rather than one that impresses lots of people.
The two hikes spoke to me of choices we can make better.
Be Open to Better
Are we really on the courses we desire in life? Are we really on all the roads that God desires? In my experience, there are always some areas in my life that God wants to make better, more peaceful, more filled with His meetings, more full of Him working to bless and help others. It seems there is never a time that better isn’t knocking at my door. God is always calling me higher in many different areas.
One family lived 50 miles up the road from where my house is in California. I didn’t know them; I read of their journey to better. He was a Fed-x manager and worked 80 hours a week. He rarely saw his children.
One day he and his wife prayerfully decided to change all that. He quit. They left unwise, unhealthy and crazy and bought a little country house in Tennessee by a little pond.
There they raised their children and doubled the size of their family. Dad had time to take the kids boating on their pond, hike everywhere they wanted, go fishing with the kids and had endless opportunities to teach them about the Lord. Dad and Mom had time and energy and desire again to love on each other. Their family became alive once more. Now they are missionaries to Israel.
They moved from bad to great.
How are you doing? Are there areas God wants you to transition from that are bad to great? Are there areas that are not so great that God might want to make great? Or are there areas where God might want you to make great strides in going from good to great?
One Slightly Crazy Venture
I read of one slightly extreme fellow today. I don’t advocate what he’s doing but his words are food for thought.
He and his wife believe that having experiences with those you love are more important than having lots of things. The context? There’s a picture of his wife in climbing gear at 16,000 feet just west of Mt Everest. The next day they are heading to base camp at 20,000 feet.
I think that’s a bit nuts…but the idea of sharing experiences with those you love instead of entering the impressing others by what we own is probably a better use of money.
Renita and I went through a couple whoppers and as you know, we decided to take a couple trips to be with each other and the kids. We thought the Lord might use it to bring healing and blessing and were astonished at how He did in so many ways.
One of our kids commented one day that we could have used the money to buy a nicer car. We both laughed, “No way! The Lord brought so much blessing that we’d never want to make the trade!” The funny thing is that when we have a lot of kids in town, we have to take our beater 12-passenger van everywhere we go. Our other car isn’t a winner but at least it’s not so dramatically old. This gem of a way-to-old van is on it’s last leg and is christened with a kind-a-lot rusted roof.
Its rusted brown-ness makes us want to hide under the dashboard at times but after we slither back out and go on our way, we remember the really beautiful things the Lord has done and are incredibly grateful. And to top it off, our trips we took instead of making the car exchange have prepared everyone for upcoming outreaches to internationals where we’ll have the opportunity to share Christ with some beloved students in some very beautiful ways.
Be open to new things and new directions the Lord may have you take. Sometimes our cookie-cutterness ways strip us both of Life and the opportunity to bring the Lord to others in very beautiful ways. Changes with enormously wonderful things God has tied to them can far eclipse shinier stuff. Don’t miss one!
“Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance.” - Isaiah 55:2