Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Lessons Learned Among the Great Sand Dunes

My family and I roadtripped to the Great Sand Dunes National Park last week. Located in southwestern Colorado, the sand dunes abut the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and face the San Juan Mountains across the valley. Formed by thousands of years of snowfall and river runoff, the sand dunes pop up almost out of nowhere, and they are a beautiful sight against the Colorado sky and mountains.

To reach the dunes, I crossed a river formed by snow runoff. The shallow yet fast water proved to be an obstacle to our next set of obstacles, but the freezing temperatures offered welcome relief in the heat.

It took me 53 minutes to hike a little over a mile through the dunes, evidence of the incredible difficulty. With each step, my feet would slide back a little, making it hard to move forward. In some areas, the ground was packed harder, making it easier to walk, but these sections were frequently intercepted by spots where my leg would sink up to my knee in the soft sand.

Just when I fought my way to what I thought was the top of the dune, I would reach a false summit, and the dunes would stretch farther and higher than I could even imagine. In reality, it is a thirty mile trek across the dunes, and the total area is over 300 square miles.

During the car ride home, I thought about how my experience at the sand dunes mimicked the journey of life. Just as I crossed the river before I even reached my obstacle, there are minor barriers in life to the major ones, smaller goals that make up the larger goals. When I finally made it on the path to the top of the dune, I spent almost as much time sliding down as I did struggling to climb up. In life, I take accidental steps backward all the time, but I continue to plug along, two steps forward, one step back.

Finally, when I reached the false summit, I was slightly disappointed I did not achieve the goal I had originally set out to conquer. I did not reach the top of the sand dune or the highest sand dune. In retrospect, however, the point I climbed to was beautiful and breathtaking. Even endings that are different than I anticipate can be equally, or more beautiful.

I suppose this all speaks to my faith life. I think, worry, plan, and prepare all the time. When things do not go according to my plan, I often ask, Why God? Why did this happen to me? But after each time my plans go awry, God's plans come into play. And these divine plans are so much greater and more beautiful than my silly human ones. I just have to trust that God's alternatives will be more beautiful than anything I could ever conceive.

"It is written:

'What no eye has seen,

what no ear has heard,

and what no human mind has conceived' —

    the things God has prepared for those who love him"

(1 Corinthians 2:9)