Restoration Area - Stay Off

Hiking in the mountains within the Rocky Mountain National Park is truly one of the great opportunities in life.  The park service does everything possible to make your experience enjoyable as well as inspiring.  I am sure that taking care of such a huge land mass as its challenges.  As you go along the way you periodically come to a sign that reads, “Restoration Area – Stay Off” .  Some of the time there is only the sign to keep you out of an area or off of a particular path.  Other times you will see the sign and a fence constructed from trees limbs and other natural resources.  When you come to one of these restoration areas the communication is clear and direct.

For whatever reason the park service has chosen to close off different areas of the park to allow nature to recover for a period of time.  The hope is keep humans from entering an area so the grass, flowers, and other resources can return back to their normal natural state.  I’m not sure how long these areas are closed off from humans.  It could be for a few weeks or months or it could be for years.  I know that the sand dunes along the beaches of the gulf coast have been mostly closed off for decades in an attempt to rebuild the natural barrier that helps hold back the high tides and storm surges.  Restoration of a nature takes time.

That’s the way life is.  People, for various reasons grow tired and wear out.  Could it be that you and I need to erect signs all around us that say, “Restoration Area – Stay Off”.  I believe that most of us need time to get away from the daily grind and the daily pressures of life to allow God to restore our spirits. 

Think about your life just for a moment.  Do you have a moment?  Most of us are so busy with life that just finding a moment to consider the need to stop and rejuvenate is not even possible (or so we think).  Our culture seems to thrive on the idea of being busy.  We have even determined in our culture that “busy people get things done” so let’s give them even more to do.   We really have lost our minds when it comes to our daily schedules.  The other day I overheard a four year old tell her friend that she would have to check her schedule …. Really?!  

You and I just go, go, go until we can’t go anymore and our life begins to break down and suffer. Relationships suffer, priorities suffer, and our spiritual journey gets derailed.  Could it be that more than anything in your life right now you need to stop, rest, and allow God to restore you life.  God says,  “Be still and know that I am God”.   Be still.  Seems hard to do.  I know people who have their quite time on the way to work as they drive down the freeway.  I’m not sure that’s what God had in mind.  Be still.

“The Lord is in His holy temple: Let all the earth keep silence before Him;  Keep silence, Keep silence, Keep silence before Him.”   That is as much for your benefit as it is His.

Be Still my friends and allow God to Restore your soul.

Love God.  Go Love Others.