It was right there, a bear, not more than twenty feet in front of me! I had been strolling along a trail in the Hoh rainforest of Olympic National Park. Bears were not on my mind. Then suddenly, rounding a bend in the path, came the bear. I was headed towards it. It was headed towards me! It all happened so quickly. There wasn’t time for keen observation, just reaction…and a photo. The bear seemed not the least bit inhibited by my presence. It just kept walking on the path towards me in the mere seconds this all went down. I, on the other hand, had fear struck into me. I was that tourist taken off guard. 

Now this bear was only a black bear, with much less potential of danger than a grizzly bear, but a bear is still a bear, and the visual of a pitch black coat rounding a bend, contrasting with the greenery of the rainforest, was anything but subtle. Unless a domestic pet, animals with no fear towards humans usually should be of concern. This part of the rainforest was thick with ferns, thus there was no space to get out of its way alongside the path, except by braving the wild undergrowth of the rainforest and whatever lurked in there. So I turned and ran. My own human instinct kicked in. When I look back at the photo I managed to capture in the midst of my quick escape, I find this bear to be quite small. Having much more experiences with bears since, I find myself near ready to mock my former self for my own startlement by this bear, but it was a quick matter of instinct and reaction. I had not been expecting to see a bear at all because I had associated bears with thick pine forests, but I was in a rainforest, and in my mind bears were just not associated with rainforests. 

Also, despite hiking, I had also been relaxing. I guess you could say I had let my guard down. Recently I found myself to be rushing too much and allowing myself to be stressed by trying to make this adventure experience worthwhile for my travel companion, Zach. Today I thought I’d seize any opportunities to relax, and this trail would afford one such opportunity to really do so. We started the hike from the Hoh Rainforest visitor center on the Hall of Mosses, surrounded by not just tourists, but trees dripping with mosses. It hung on their sprawling branches like drapery, reminding me of some photos I’ve seen of the humid deep South and the trees that rest on some former plantations. Their trunks were also covered from the forest floor to their highest reaches in moss. Among these moss-ladened trees were other deciduous trees in the forest, and a forest floor nearly covered in ferns. In any area there weren’t ferns, there were other green plants stretching out to fill the voids. The humidity, the hanging moss, the lack of pine trees, wasn’t something I’d associate with the far North. It’d be more appropriate from my own experiences to believe I was in the United States’ deep South or the jungles of South America, but no, I was in the far reaches of the U.S. on the Olympic peninsula. 

After we completed the 1.1 mile loop of the Hall of Mosses, Zach and I took off down the Hoh River trail. It was very similar in nature to the Hall of Mosses, except instead of a loop, it was a rather straight path parallel to the river. After a few miles on that trail, I saw a small breakaway from the path, an outlet down to the banks of the Hoh River. It was nice to get a break from the thick forest in an area where the river created a natural clearing where we could see the sky, the mountains, and look out upon a larger landscape, but our attention was also focused downward because in a still pool alongside the river was an utterly bustling cloud of tadpoles. They were thick, chunky tadpoles with well-rounded bodies, and quickly moving tales, storming around each other in sheer chaos. It was really quite a grotesque display of nature, an unsettling visual, but terribly unique of an experience and fascinating in that. The size of these tadpoles spoke of the large frogs or toads they’d become. 

After observing those creatures, I noticed the warmth of the sun on my skin and the peacefulness of the river. Its nearby ruffle was soothing to the ears. There were patches of sand amidst the rocks, and in one I set down my backpack as a pillow. “Let’s take a few minutes and just relax,” I proposed. I laid down and closed my eyes. I knew the healing power of the sun when it comes to body inflammation, and I wanted the sun to just envelop me in its healing power. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. This is what I believed I was lacking. I needed more time like this to relax in nature instead of always being on the move. I prayed for my health, and I wanted to fall asleep to wake up with a refreshed feeling of renewal. I didn’t fall asleep, but I took time, with my eyes closed, to focus intently on the sounds around me, trying to distinguish each sound, focusing on each one at a time. First I tuned into a bird’s call, then a frog’s ribbit, then the ruffling of the river. This practice is something I’ve found very relaxing. After about twenty minutes of laying there on the river’s shore, we were back on the trail. I was slow-moving purposely, trying to have a relaxing stroll through the rainforest, keeping my body down from its recently normal state of intensity to that of peace and calm…then…. suddenly… a bear! 

I was the first to spot the bear. I turned around, pushing Zach who was behind me and urging him to run. “There’s a bear!” I pointed my camera behind me as I ran to capture a photo. Eventually the trail opened up where the rainforest floor stood barren around some trees, an obvious place where people have stopped to take breaks. There was also a couple there, hauling their own backpacks. We stopped. “There’s a bear just up ahead,” we warned. ”It’s right on the trail.” They were going the other way, so it wasn’t of much concern to them. 

Zach and I assessed the situation, and decided, since the bear did not make its appearance to us again, and it had plenty of time to catch up to us, it must have ventured off into the forest. So we decided to turn back around and continue on our hike cautiously. We concluded our journey at a beautiful waterfall. It was maybe forty feet tall and was a double fall in that the water fell into one pool and shortly after down into another. Some limbless fallen tree trunks covered in moss laid at its base, adding size perspective to the scene. Moss also snuggly held onto all the surrounding rocks of the falls as well, making the scene very green. We had seen the falls from the trail, and following Zach’s off-trail lead, we bushwhacked through the ferns and rainforest undergrowth close enough to shake the falls hand. 

When I think back to this day and I consider the encounter with the bear, I think there must be a message here, a purpose for this encounter. Maybe the message wasn’t evident then, but the purpose could be found now in reflecting back upon the event. As I’ve sauntered over this thought, I’ve come to some great parallels.

Now, first off, I am a big fan of bears. Visually they are stunning. They are such an intelligent creature, and one of God’s greatest beasts. I respect their strength, their space, and existence, but for the sake of this analogy, I’m going to liken the bear to the enemy. I’m imagining bears as spiritual beasts, things dark, dangerous, and destructive to our spiritual lives. 

Now, as for us, we are on a journey through the jungle of life. Some people wander aimlessly in the jungle, lost. They have no direction. They are riddled with fear, anxiety, and hopelessness. Spiritually they are hungry and desperate for they haven’t found the spirit sustaining substance of God’s Word. Others don’t think they are lost, for they are on a path, a very wide and well traveled path. It lures with the prospect of encountering great treasure buried deep in the jungle. The travelers think wealth and prosperity is their destination, but they are lost too, for this wide path leads really to nowhere of good consequence but rather to destruction. It leads off a cliff edge, down a waterfall, and into a mountain lion den, but little do they know this. Then there is the God fearing man who follows a path that is narrow through the jungle. Its tightly accompanied by flora and fauna of all kinds which can cause great distraction, but the man sticks to the straight and narrow along the River of Life, the flow of God’s grace and mercy (or in this case, the Hoh River). Others have been on this path before. Great spiritual leaders and people of incredible faith, great “Nurse Logs” and “Wheeler Peaks,” led by God himself, have helped clear this path with wisdom and knowledge. With their great machetes, spiritual fortitude, and grit, they have helped clear the path for us. This spiritual path, though leading to the very physical presence of God and the safest place to be in the jungle, is not isolated from trouble. It exists yet in a spiritual realm of all forces, good and evil. There are the creatures of darkness that try to disrupt our journey, our progress. Unexpectedly they come onto the path with the intent to kill, steal, and destroy. They threaten to take us off the path, or send us backward, running away from the pursuit of God.

Now not all these spiritual creatures are the same. Just as not all bears are the same. Black bears are generally fearful of humans. Of course there are exceptions, like the one I encountered this day, but typically they instinctively fear what man can do to them. They run off in the presence of man, and man can run off from them, as I’ve done a few times, but then there are grizzly’s which are much more territorial. Although their threat is overhyped they have been known to attack on occasion, and grizzly bears are not to be run away from. When presented with a running human, it is of their nature to chase the human. A grizzly bear must be handled differently from a black bear, and if all strategies fail, you have to fight it. 

So first let’s examine the spiritual black bears. They are spiritual beasts that cower. They usually get out of the way in fear. Sometimes we don’t even know these beasts were just up ahead on the trail. They are those animals we never knew were there on trail, because the animals heard or smelled our presence first, and in fear, ran away. There are beasts of the spiritual world that are in great fear of the presence of the Christian who beholds the Holy Spirit. When we behold the Holy Spirit, these spiritual creatures are truly mortified. They simply cannot encounter the presence of God or be touched at all by the light of his glory. They run away. With God’s Spirit dwelling in the Christian, so many encounters with spiritual beasts are avoided. 

This gives me, and should give you, a great deal of confidence. For example, I’m not one who believes in ghosts, but I most certainly believe in demons and think the two are often confused. I have been in places that are supposedly “haunted” before, but I disregarded these stories as any danger to myself. Because even if people did have chilling encounters with the spiritual in these places, I know I wouldn’t because of God living in me. The powers of darkness flee in my presence, but not because of my actual presence, but of His presence in me. Hence, I have not a single  “ghost” story to tell. This also explains why sometimes people say my presence emits a peacefulness and sense of safety. That is not of me. Sometimes my human mind is fraught with concern, but despite that, there is God’s presence dwelling in me. The mere presence of a Christian in whom the Spirit of God dwells is very powerful and influential to the spiritual forces at work in the world.

Then, there is another form of spiritual beast. We can call it the grizzly. It’s a specifically tailored one. It does not flinch. It is concocted by the devil himself and released on our path strategically. Sometimes it tries to avoid the Christian for it too is fearful, but when it is encountered, it usually will not flee in our presence but it will approach. It’s also very territorial. The territory it wants, that it thinks it is entitled to, is you!  It’s a stalking creature, and thus, in this aspect, more like a mountain lion than a bear. It also strategically strikes in time of peace. Here’s the thing, we are not to fear these creatures either. God has equipped us with the power and tools to defeat them, but sometimes we are not prepared. We are taken off guard. 

In times of peace and security, when we have taken a relaxing break by the riverside, enjoying the sunlight, and strolling pleasantly through life, watching the tadpoles, sometimes we can become very relaxed in our spiritual lives. We become complacent. We drift away from the Word, from daily prayer and devotion to God. We stop asking questions of faith and pursuing the knowledge of God. Subconsciously we default to, we don’t need any of that now because we are traveling along this path just fine. Then the spiritual beast appears, the bear comes right out of the jungle. It comes near us and we are unprepared. We are not armed up with the spiritual armor of God. Our Shield of Faith is in the backpack, we left the Sword of the Spirit at home, and the Belt of Truth is in the car. It’s not to say we are hopeless. We are not, but we face a lot more turmoil trying to pull ourselves together, and in the meantime we may experience a lot more headache and heartache that we would not have if we had been equipped. The lesson here is that in times of peace and comfort, when the sun is shining and the river is just ruffling, we need to work out our faith, to sharpen the sword, to affix that armor. In practical terms, these are times we need to be really delving into His Word, meditating on it day and night, to pray without ceasing, to ask God questions and pursue His truth, to continue to grow and fortify our faith. Imagine a fully armored Christian encountering a spiritual grizzly on the trail. It approaches the Christian, attempting to bring chaos and destruction into His life, but there’s not even a match here. Nothing is a threat to a Christian in the fully affixed Armor of God. 

This is not all to say that even the fortified devoted Christian is not met with great challenges and pain. Remember this second kind of beast is tailored specifically for its assaultant. The stronger the Christian, the greater the beast. Even the strongest Christians sometimes go through immense heartache and headache, but rooted in Christ, they are standing on a solid rock out in the tumultuous  waves of the Pacific. They know the battle is already one. They are able to endure the pain with peace and resolve that is deeper than human understanding, because it is of God and not themselves. In my own life I have a specific tailored beast. It is that of ulcerative colitis. Although some may dismiss it as a purely physical ailment, the physical and spiritual and intertwined. When I am sick, it does affect me spiritually. For someone who is so active and tries to be so healthy, when I lose my health, I feel like my life is ripped from me. It can be devastating. It has the potential to take a serious spiritual toll. I certainly view my sickness as an attack from the enemy. However, during this summer’s adventure I’d soon come to the realization that even if I’m not physically healed, I can win the battle spiritually. No physical ailment needs to have dominion over my life. 

Oftentimes when we are strolling along the path in the jungle, at peace, we lose sight that we are in spiritual war. All of life is a spiritual war. There are moments of peace between battles, which we are to enjoy, but just because we are not engaged in a battle at the moment, does not mean the war itself is over and we have the luxury of letting our guard down. In any war, you use the in-between time to train, fortify, plan, and strategize for the next move. 

To liken all of life to spiritual war may sound pessimistic, but I don’t think it is so. Even if it sounds so, it’s an unavoidable reality that I’ve come to terms with. But I don’t view it as pessimistic because there is a great Hope. It is knowing through Christ Jesus the battle is already won and we have the presence of God with us! When we engage in spiritual battle, we participate in this victory. What an incredible honor and responsibility. It also brings us back to Scripture and prayer. We should never take such things merely casually or as ineffective. Our sincere time in Scripture and our prayers are never wasted. God is using them to fulfill His will. It is all a part of His plan, the same victorious plan of Christ Jesus! We also know that one day, in His eternal presence, not only will all our battles be over, but we will be on the other side of the war, on the other side of eternity, living in complete peace in His presence in His new Heaven and new Earth. Thus we run forward with perseverance on a path that is marked for us (Heb. 12:1). We press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus ( Phil. 3:14).

During the in-between times of peace on the trail, it’s so important we don’t let our guards down, that we don’t become too comfortable with the numbing narcotics of life’s pleasures and distractions. When considering the war, I also think about our spiritual storerooms. In Matthew 12:35, Jesus says, “ A good man produces good things from his storeroom of good, and an evil man produces evil things from his storeroom of evil.” This begs the question: What is in my storeroom? We place in our storerooms our own amusements, distractions, our selfish thoughts and pursuits, and just flat out a lot of junk. Many of us need some serious spring cleaning, and we shouldn’t take these things to the Goodwill either. Much just needs to be burned.

So what needs to be in our storerooms? The things of God, what He values, what He loves, and chiefly, His Scripture. His Word is the most powerful of our weapons. A dear friend and pastor of mine, Steve, in his teachings has called this our “arsenal of Scripture.” I like this analogy because so much of Scripture is like ammunition. Immediately it paralyzes fear and stops the enemy. When true pessimism does sneak into my life, often connected with my own health, one of my very effective weapons is the truth of a two verse harmony of 1 Peter 5:10 and Phillippians 4:7,  “After you have suffered a while, the God of grace Himself, whose knowledge surpasses all understanding, will restore you and make you strong in Christ Jesus.” I say it, sometimes out loud. It lifts my own spirit, as the assaulting beast of pessimism and hopelessness is paralyzed when the promises of God are declared and the name of Jesus is invoked. Yes, sometimes it is that simple. We are all in a war. We fight battles that look very different for each of us, but we are all in the same spiritual war and we all reach victory by the same means. So I raise the same question Steve does, “What do you have in your arsenal of Scripture?” and as Jesus evokes, “What is in your storeroom?”  

Next time a spiritual beast approaches me on the path of life, I don’t want to run away backwards in fear, like I did with the bear in the Hoh Rainforest. Instead I want to be so fortified with the Word of God and His presence that I can approach that beast confidently and leave it behind victoriously. I can rebuke it with Scripture and the name of Jesus. God gives us the power to slay whatever comes in our path, but we must fortify ourselves in Faith and knowledge of His Word. Do not let your guard down in times of peace. God warns in Hosea 4:6, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” Instead, be in His Word, build that arsenal, polish the armor. The more ready you are, the more beasts will also just stay off your path. When they smell that blood of Christ they stay away, but be ready, for despite His protection, a next battle is always inevitable until He calls us home.

If you enjoyed reading this, check out my book “Still, Calm, and Quiet“

Check out my previous entry here: “The Mystical Beaches of Olympic”

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