Red Screes

We were in Ambleside for a few days. For February the weather looked good, unlike the previous February when we had torrential rain, so much that even the Windermere cruises were cancelled, and items were blown about in the streets. Day one of our short holiday we once again climbed Wansfell Pike but in much better conditions.

The next day we felt ready for a bigger challenge, Red Screes. We started our walk on the road that leads to Kirkstone pass and it is steep! “Excellent”, I thought, ”We get the hard bit done on the road!”

As we took a gently climbing track to High Sweden bridge, I decided it was a wonderful mountain, the sun shone, and the old pack horse bridge was a delightful spot. Next, through the gate and up to the col and the weather seemed to turn and the path got a little steeper. We donned our waterproofs and continued but soon found ourselves in thick cloud, the col was  reached but the weather did not improve. The ground was rocky and slippery with damp, boggy patches if you strayed from the path. My boots began to leak, and my gloves were wet. We climbed and climbed; passers-by assured us that the summit wasn’t far but soon there was snow under foot, albeit only a sprinkling and still no view, under complete cloud cover. We were thankful for cairns and a very distinctive summit and also for our, map, compass and guide book which described the terrain and pointed our path along the shoulder of the mountain. Gradually we descended out of the cloud and found our way back down the mountain. What a day we had had, an 11 mile walk and about two and a half thousand feet of climbing. How pleased we were to have completed our target.

When I thought about it afterwards, I thought about how my feelings changed during the walk, delight, struggle, misery when I was wet and cold, relief when we were out of the mist happiness to see the view stretched out below, jubilation when we saw the road home, it reminded me that the mountain didn’t change it was always the same, but how I felt about it changed along the journey.

And so it is with faith; Jesus, just like the mountain never changes but feelings change all the time. We need to keep on going through the bad times and good because Jesus is always the same and is always there for us. He has given us a guidebook, map and compass in the Bible and fellow Christians, for our journey.

 Hebrews 13 verse eight says: “Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever”. Let’s remember that when the going gets tough.

Enid