Start for the High Places - Chapter 4

This week our discussion group is going to be reading chapters 4-7.  Below are some questions to discuss and ponder.  The answers to these are found in Chapter 4.

1.  The start for the high places begins with some lessons on humility.  What were some of those lessons?

2.  The ideas expressed in The Water Song are not easy to do.  Can you think of some areas in your life where you must go low, and lower still? 

 3.  Jesus is the best example.  How did Jesus go low? 

The Water Song

Come, oh come! let us away --

Lower, lower every day.

Oh, what joy it is to race

Down to find the lowest place.

This the dearest law we know

“It is happy to go low.”

Sweetest urge and sweetest will,

“Let us go down lower still.”

 

Hear the summons night and day

Calling us to come away.

From the heights we leap and flow

To the valleys down below.

Always answering to the call,

To the lowest place of all.

Sweetest urge and sweetest pain,

To go low and rise again.

 

3. “The High Places,” answered the Shepherd, “are the starting places for the journey down to the lowest place in the world.  When you have hinds’ feet and can go ‘leaping on the mountains and skipping on the hills,’ you will be able, as I am, to run down from the heights in gladdest self-giving and then go up to the mountains again.”   Why is it necessary to go to the high places in order to go to the lowest places in “gladdest self-giving?”  or How does “leaping on the mountains” enable you to be full of “gladdest self-giving?”

4.  What are the High Places? 

5.  What was Much-Afraid’s response when she encountered her two companions to help her journey to the High Places? 

6.  What were the names of the companions that she would have preferred?

7.  My response has often been the same when Sorrow and Suffering become my companions.  How does encountering sorrow and suffering help you in your journey?

8.  On page 68-69, Much-Afraid remembers a hymn.  She was encouraged by it.  What were the thoughts that encouraged her?  How have similar hymns and remembrances helped you in your journey?

9.  How are you hindered if you reject – so to speak – the work of sorrow and suffering – kicking against it rather than viewing it as God’s plan and purpose to work righteousness? 

When I first started this book years ago, the idea of "High Places" conjured up the idea of having such a strong position in my faith that I could be "above" my troubles.  I thought that somehow, if I tried hard enough, I could be unaffected by life's sorrows and sufferings.  They might come, but I would never have to grieve again.  Boy, was I wrong!  The bad stuff is still painful, but I do have some choices.

Every time difficult circumstances happen, I find myself faced with the same old decisions:  Will I fight to believe that He is able to handle my past, present, and future, or will I yield to the controlling spirit and demand to have my way?  Will I fight to believe that He is working all things together for good to those who love Him, or will I yield to the despair of thinking that I'm the exception to His grace and mercy? Will I trust Him if the circumstances never change, and will I choose to simply delight in the fact that I have the privilege of knowing and belonging to Him, or will I hate my life? Will I let the satisfaction that I find in Him work its way out into contentment, or will my discontent drive me to madness?   I am like Much-Afraid - trying to choose whether or not to accept the difficult road that God has chosen for my life - or will I decide to kick, struggle and fight until I end up in a weary heap of anger and bitterness?  Will I let His character be formed and discover the depth of His faithfulness, or will I hate Him because He seems unjust?

Please know that I don't always jump into contentment with a smile on my face.  I wrestle; I fight; I kick, but it is a futile resistance.  I ultimately end at the same place with two thoughts: "You rule and reign according to your wisdom and power, so I have no choice but to yield because You are God," and "To whom will I go, You have the words of eternal life."  He is sovereign, and He is good.  I don't have to understand, I only have to believe.

That sounds so fatalistic, but it isn't.  It is the ultimate in hope.  He is going to work through the circumstances and bring Himself great glory and honor.  He will change me through it, and I will understand His mercy and faithfulness more and more because of the "it." He is worthy.  So, you and I might as well try to enjoy the journey.

 

 

Beginning the Journey

Hinds' Feet on High Places is a story about a little lame and disfigured girl named Much-Afraid who decides to take a journey to the high places.  Her greatest desire is to escape her fearing relatives who are attempting to marry her to Craven Fear.   Her journey is full of challenges and growth, but the Shepherd is determined to give her the desire of her heart - no matter what it takes.  

The first time I read the book I had recently moved to Houston, TX, where I knew absolutely no one.  I was lonely.  I had just had a new baby, after having two miscarriages within the previous two years.  I had been in a major car accident, my husband had been overseas for 6 months, and my mother and father had separated and divorced.  I cried all the way through the book, not because it made me sad, but because I began to see hope for all the suffering and sorrow that I was experiencing.  They were tears of tenderness as I began to see that Christ might actually be kind and tender, a gentle shepherd, a healer with a purpose for my circumstances that exceeded my present perception. 

I liked the way the Shepherd was presented.  He was winsome, funny, sweet, and kind. He would actually look at Much-Afraid and see her – not with condescension or disgust - but with eyes of love, hope, and delight.  The book began to open my eyes to the possibility that I might have not been seeing Christ appropriately. 

I also identified with Much-Afraid.  If there had ever been a middle name for me, it would have been Fear and Trembling.  And during those two+ years in Houston and Ft. Hood, TX, I saw the wounds splayed and exposed, and I perceived that I needed to allow God to heal my wounded heart. 

I am diving back into that book now with great joy; it is like an old friend with whom I have suffered and grown because of “her” presence in my life.  I encourage you to travel with us.  Our little group has begun looking at the book, discussing it, and contemplating what the Lord might want to teach us about ourselves in our current season of life.  I will post questions that you can contemplate and answer.  You are welcome to make comments as you work through the book with us.  The questions are the kind that demand transparency.  I urge you to be as forthcoming as you dare. 

Last night our small group began a discussion of the first 3 chapters of the book.  Some of the questions we asked were: 

*  From what Valley of Humiliation would you like most to be delivered?

*  In what ways are your legs lame and your mouth twisted, and from what would you want the Shepherd to heal you?

*  Is the love within your heart the love that demands to be loved in return, or is it the kind of love that is self-sacrificial - the God-kind of love?

*  In this book, the Shepherd is painted with winsome and gentle attributes.  He is tender, kind, understanding, fiercely loving, encouraging without being pushy - except when needed and someone worth knowing.  Is your view of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, bent this way, or do you see a strict, cruel, and/or judgmental God?

*  All of us get invaded from time to time by a swarm of thoughts that keep us from moving on fearlessly with God.  What are the biggest threats to your forward movement?  Is it Cowardice, Fear of Acceptance, Fear of Failure, Self-Condemnation, Self-Doubt or some other noisy intruder?

*  Much-Afraid received the promise of a new name.  What name did you begin with, and what would you like your new name to be?

As we discussed the book together and answered these and other questions, one thing that remained consistent for us all was that we all had fears that threatened to undo us.  Our fight to believe that we are perfectly loved, forgiven, accepted, and declared righteous remains an ongoing battle for us all.  The same enemies that trapped Much-Afraid tend to trap us.  The same longings are in our own hearts; we want freedom from our fears, and we don’t want to be married to any of them.    

We looked at I John.  I John 3:16-19 says, "And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us, God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears in not perfected in love.  We love because He first loved us." 

Perfect love casts out fear.  Not our perfect love for God or others, but God’s perfect love for us.  We must fight to believe it is true – no matter what we feel, or what circumstances are telling us, or how much we are being driven to think we are beyond His love and care. 

And that is ultimately the journey to the High Places.  Fear is removed as we discover His love over and over again.  We find Him to be faithful to love us always – maybe He does not seem faithful in the way we want – but He is definitely faithful in the way HE wants.   And at some point, He becomes worth the journey.  It becomes about knowing Him, enjoying Him, delighting in Him, serving Him, and loving others for HIS sake, not in order to be loved in return.