The Retreat Was Good

My retreat was good. Not the best retreat I've ever taken, nor the worst. The length was a factor; I arrived Wednesday morning and left Thursday after the evening meal. I've taken this length of retreat before and it can be a challenge - longer than just a day-away or overnighter, but not long enough to be a long retreat. That makes it tough - I found myself kind of putzing around for part of Thursday because I knew I didn't have the time to go deeper, but was sort of "done" with what could be done in a day. Still, I am very thankful I got to go, and I was able to help Father Richard cut a bunch of wood for his fireplace.

The two most eventful things were this:
1. My car got totally stuck on the way there, trying to pull into their long driveway. We had only a few inches of snow in Ferndale, but they had almost 18 inches. The retreat house sits on a hill, off a dirt road, and so going up that hill I lost all my momentum (the dirt underneath all the snow was covered in ice) and I never would have been able to clear all the snow in the driveway anyway. I got stuck trying to pull in and I was totally blocking the road. It sort of turned into a big thing and took like two hours to sort out, after the snow removal truck finally showed up. So those were my first two hours.
2. The next couple of hours is when the best part of the retreat happened. For about a month now I've been praying my through 1 Kings 18:42-44 - Elijah on Mt. Carmel sending his servant back seven times to see if the promised rain is coming ... personally, I've felt like Elijah after about time 5 or 6. I've been asking the Lord, "Where's the rain? Why is it taking so long? What's gone wrong?" As I walked the trails I heard the Lord say, "Jim, that's the wrong question. The right question for you right now is 'Do you believe it will come?'" Relief washed over me because I do believe; help my unbelief. I'll keep looking until it comes.