DAY 17

LESSONS FROM PATAGONIA

MATT CIARMITARO, YOUTH PASTOR

Going slow is not compatible with our culture. We live in an open, 7-days-a-week, 24-hours-a-day society. Endless entertainment options and news feeds are constantly streamed to our devices. A recent study found that 96% of those under the age of 23 won’t go to the bathroom without their phone. There’s no time to sit alone with your thoughts. We used to sit waiting for a doctor's appointment or sit idle driving in the car. That doesn’t happen much anymore. One thing I notice about young people is that they won’t even finish an entire song. So often before the chorus can repeat itself for the last time, they’ve already skipped to the next one.

This was the world I found myself in before leaving on a trip to Patagonia, the southern tip of South America, with a few friends. If you know anything about me, you know I love to backpack through trails and spend time “off-grid.” The beauty of God’s creation, a sense of adventure, and a little bit of suffering make a perfect combination to feel refreshed and alive. On the second day of our journey, a Chilean man said something to me that would foreshadow a lesson God would teach me later.

As I frustratingly swiped my credit card to purchase wifi so I could assure my wife I hadn’t been suddenly abducted, hit by a meteor, eaten by a puma or whatever illogical worry she might have, the man said “Ah, American, everything always large and fast.” He grabbed my card, held it for more than the 1⁄2 second I was allowing, and voila, it worked. It didn’t make me mad; I agreed with him. (I actually had him repeat it so I could film what he said.) “Americans... everything always large and fast.”

Not only is this not the way it is done in many other places, it’s not the way Jesus taught us. Anyone who has read through the gospels can see that Jesus lived by a rhythm where he constantly stopped what he was doing and spent considerable time in prayer. To name a few:

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. —Luke 6:12

In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there. —Mark 1:35

But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. —Luke 5:16

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”

—Matthew 26:36

It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”

—Luke 11:1

We need to unlearn a culture that many of us have bought into, and many would argue is best. “Bigger is better, more is better, and faster is better.” Truth be told, I like being fast; I pride myself in it. On the trail, I kept tabs on our speed through my Garmin watch. I tried to keep us moving at 3.5 mph. Mind you, the average person walks between 2–3 mph, but this was with a weighted backpack on uneven terrain. We were quick, and we felt pretty good about ourselves. That was until the second to last day when my 38-year-old knees weren’t having it. It dawned on me that keeping up with the 21 and 24-year-olds might not have been the best strategy. I began to have knee pain so severe it became hard to walk. With one day left, and the crown jewel of the park left to hike, I had a choice. Miss out and start heading down, or hike up the mountain. Of course, I chose to push it! It was uncomfortable, but I made it. The trek back down the mountain, however, was unbearable. My knee pain was so severe that I started walking down backward to alleviate the joints. For the final 5 miles, my partners went on ahead, and I was left by myself.

In the week’s long journey, this was the first time I was alone with my thoughts. Alone with God. I had thanked Him, praised Him, and worshiped Him all trip long as I witnessed His beautiful creation, but this was the first time I stopped to have some real dialogue. So, alone with my thoughts, I simply asked God, “What do you want to teach me?”

The first thing He taught me was that in life, I need to go slow—as slow as I was walking at that moment. Let me tell you, it was SLOW. A grown man walking 6-inch steps at a time. It was the only way to walk pain-free.

The second thing God spoke to me was that going fast brings pain. He was right about that. At the end of the Journey, I couldn’t walk. It wasn’t just physical, though. When we go fast in life, skipping out on the discipline of slowing down to commune with God, we experience pain. We don’t receive his Grace, we aren’t filled with his Spirit, and we don’t bear the fruit of His Spirit in our lives.

The third thing God showed me was that going slow doesn’t hurt. He was right; if I walked “painfully” slowly, my knees didn’t hurt. However, we are usually afraid that if we slow down, we’ll miss out. Others might get ahead in life while we are left lagging behind. This has to do with trust. We need to trust that when we slow down to speak with God, He’ll do more through us than we could ever imagine. John Macdonald encourages us as a staff, that “one day of prayer” is worth 2 weeks of work.

The fourth thing God taught me was that as soon as I started to feel better, the temptation would be to pick the pace back up. Reverting back to my normal pace would just start the cycle all over again. This isn’t a “just for now” thing; it is a forever thing. Forever slow!

The fifth thing God taught me was that If I was honest, my goal was to be healed, so that I could run fast again. I didn’t like slow. Slow was still bad, but I was tolerating it while I had to. To me, fast was still best.

The sixth thing God wanted me to learn was to stay slow. I had to genuinely wrestle with the idea that God’s way was completely different from my own. I had to confess that I did not like God’s way of doing things. We all have to wrestle with God’s best at times and choose to submit to Him, trusting that He knows best.

In the end, I made it down the mountain, but it took me a few more hours. It was excruciatingly painful, but I’ll never forget the amazing conversation with the Lord that I will always remember.

As you spend time with the Lord today, ask yourself these questions:

1. On a scale of 1–10, how fast is your life?

2. Have there been times where going too fast has caused you pain?

3. What can you do to slow your life down and create more moments of dialogue with the Lord?

4. Have you come to the point where slow is your preference? Do you desire to stop everything else to spend time with the Lord, or do you tolerate time of prayer as an inconvenient necessity?

5. What weekly rhythms do you need to develop to ensure that you STAY slow, even when life picks up speed?

PRAYER

Jesus, help me to choose what is better. Help me to know that I can do far more with you than I can do on my own. Apart from you, I can do nothing. When I am tempted to forge on ahead while relying on my experience, skills, and strength, remind me that I need you all the more. Heavenly Father, your Kingdom is upside down. Weaker is stronger, and slower is faster. May the worries of this world fade away as I rest in your presence. Make me aware of the hurry in my life, and lead me in the way everlasting.