The secret of real peace of mind is to be FOUND in JESUS; born anew through His Spirit, and trusting your future to Him! “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” – Isaiah 26:3
In May, 2001 we stepped into a hobby that we thought would make a mark FOR GOD on the world but instead GOD used to teach us how to walk WITH HIM. For 5 years, I was the “Number One” geocacher in the world but it never meant a thing – to me – and more importantly, to God. If He is not FIRST and your life flows out of His Source, then your life is but a shallow echo.
What in the world is geocaching???
We no longer geocache but do maintain what remains of our existing ones. The meaningful ones, the places or ideas that drew us into believing God wanted this to be a witness to Him through our lives but I (Lynn) didn’t listen and kept going “solo” thinking God would “tag” along and bless me regardless. From the very first year, my family was pleading with me to remember that I was quitting at 100, at 1000 and then one of my daughter’s friends said “she will never quit.” Pretty bad when an outsider who doesn’t even know God sees your heart and how diluted, polluted it can get. The prophet Jeremiah said it best:
Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said:
Psalms 127:1, “Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman wakes but in vain.”
Well for YEARS God was gently calling me away from how involved I was. IT WAS AN IDOL! Oh I would “test” God and say that my heart is right because I didn’t accept any of the “praise, the applause, the attentions, the glory of people” not just because I didn’t believe any of it but because there was something wrong within me that would not allow me to RECEIVE anything. It was “JUST a game“, I told myself and others. Well it reveals our heart. Mine was wrapped up in geocaching and chasing these things and for what? It became an ESCAPE after our daughter ran away 12/30/04. I was almost out of the game and then folks invited me to visit them to cache. I didn’t enjoy it and sat crying on airplanes, in hotels, in airports, in their homes, in their cars and even at MEGA events, particularly at the GeoWoodstock III in Jacksonville, Florida.
The geocaching community would applaud me, toast me, award me, honor me, pat me on the back, say “you’re my HERO” and I would just cry and cry and KNOW I WAS NO ONE’S HERO.
Not JUST that my daughter was captivated by the enemy of our faith but that I had ignored what God told me.
But instead I continued to bury myself alive in geocaching frenzy. I about HATED the game! It was like an addict with a drug, it was ALL I did. I love God, always have and always will but I was not willing to TRUST Him. I had a serious problem all my life and this was to make me face it and then give it to Him …it took my Daddy passing away in 12/12/08 for the REAL HEART CHANGE to begin to occur.
When he got sicker I had just been limping along half heartedly in geocaching since about 2005-2006 and then decided let’s just reach 25,000 and THAT IS IT! NO MORE!
I did but even after he passed, my husband took the little one out and they signed my name to a cache – just my initials.
And my husband said AFTER ALL THIS TIME, “oh it’s not going to hurt you to find a FEW“…the devil will even use those nearest to us to persuade us to do something God said not to do EVEN if their human logic knows otherwise.
Well then I got into hiding a TON! And into using it to share more about faith and having EVENTS every month and caching EVERY DAY. I said I’m giving and sharing about faith and God and I’m only going out for a few a day and returning home early: it’s not the same thing. Well a little bit of poison will still kill you and if God said NO that means N-O!
Finally I realized that it wasn’t just that the game was changing for the WORSE and that the newcomers were from all walks of life and violently opposed to GOD and even coming against me and also the fooling around, destroying and stealing my caches GOD ALLOWED because He said NO.
12/31/09 I found my last cache. I’ve found 2 since but only while helping others. I will not log them. I did not intend to even find them – they were because friends asked my help. I did not even enjoy it! I just enjoyed helping them. God works THROUGH all my life to help others in everything not just a hobby.
1/1/10 my husband and i joined a group of cachers and the scales were off my eyes. My husband signed the log but I will not log it ever. I saw the PHONY hearts and how people USED me because I was a “charter” member, a “high profile” and NAME, an ICON. They did not know me – they either LOVED me or HATED me but they never knew me. That is not true of folks who have been in the game a long time, there are still quite a few that we consider TRUE FRIENDS. You can tell the difference. And I no longer blame myself and God when things go wrong, I confess my sin and turn to HIM for cleansing and restoration and go on WITH Him. I am listening to His voice and not going off on “my own.” Life is too precious to waste or discount the time we are given.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from ALL unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:9
Heavenly Father, as I look to You through Jesus, all tension and anxiety fall away. I am wrapped in Your love and peace that surpasses, transcends and fills up all that I lack with all that You are. My soul is flooded with You and overflowing with joy and peace in trusting You as Lord and Savior. Every Word You speak is True and Light and Love to my wholeness and well-being. You hold my life in Your hand because You love me and want to guide me into Your Truth, Light and Love forever. I confess that NOTHING is in the way between You and me because apart from You there is nothing created. You are God alone and apart from You there is NO other. May my life ever flow outward to refresh others with the love that I receive from You. AMEN.
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