Did you know you are an arms length away from your breakthrough?
By: Alicia Griffith
Tags: Depression, Hiking, Breakthrough, Christianity

Since starting my business, I have been beat up physically, spiritually and emotionally. I have had some pretty intense waves of deep depression and anxiety. I have felt pressure from all sides, feeling dread and entrapment. The last two weeks have been the worst. I have struggled but when I had an issue with the food trailer that disabled me from working I knew that was the final blow. I was done! With nothing to do all week, I sunk deeper and deeper into my depression. I thought suicidal thoughts. I thought of numbing the pain through alcohol or pills. I was breaking down and saw no way out. I didn’t pray to God… I didn’t talk to God. I didn’t play worship music. My mind said, “I am forgotten and God lead me here, knowing how I would feel. He wants me to lose everything. Why would He give me confirmation after confirmation for me to end up here? WHY!”

Friday, my wife text me and said we had a friend that wanted to take us to dinner. I didn’t want to go but I did. Exactly what I knew would happen did, God showed our friend, Pam, my spiritual mail. Next thing I know I’m getting up at 5:45am on a Saturday, to go on a hike with Pam.

The hike was beautiful and physically and spiritually tough. God started dealing with me as soon as I entered the trail. We walked down the mountain and took the Boulder Gorge Trail and at one point we were at the bottom of these huge rocks and the trail just stopped. It was overwhelming, and I heard God speak to me. This was a tangible picture of my spiritual reality. I was here. I hiked up a ways and saw another trail. Pam and I started on that trail and here she went. “You know you are at the bottom of Boulder Gorge and you can’t see a way out, but God is only an arms length away. He is at the top saying ‘Alicia, grab my hand’ but you gotta reach up and take His hand.” Yep. I was tired. I have been fighting, what felt like a losing battle, on my own. I continued to hit boulder after boulder.

We continued, what felt like 6 miles, through uphill rocky climbs and spider webs. The sun was still rising when we reached a split. Pam asked me, “Do you wanna go left or right?” I said, “I don’t care, let’s go left.” We came out by this flat field that soon turned into another uphill climb. When we reached the top we saw the most beautiful view the trail had to offer. We sat for a minute and Pam said, “God is all in this hike, isn’t He?” I agreed. He was but I still couldn’t feel Him like I wanted to. Even though I was out of the boulders and on top of the mountain, I still felt smothered. Pam looked me square in the eye and told me if I didn’t get it together that I would lose everything. My business, my family… everything. If I allowed fear to win, that’s what would happen. She said, “You aren’t in the Word, you aren’t walking in favor and you won’t be blessed until you let go of you.” Y’all she gave me the business, said “that was from God,” and literally walked away. By the end of the hike I was asking Pam to pray with me. I gave it all to God. I came back to God. I stopped blaming God and critiquing every life choice I had made since I was 16. I walked into the woods that morning, but me and God walked out.

I want y’all to know you are an arms length away from your breakthrough. Whatever it is. Think about a leaf. If you pick a leaf off of a tree, it immediately starts to die. You don’t see it at first but slowly the death process takes over. That was me, because I removed myself from the true Vine, my source. [ I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5 NIV]. It’s a good thing we can reattach and come home.

Whether it’s finances, health, family, drama, work, loneliness or something else, please know you are an arms length away from your breakthrough.

Has my circumstances changed since Saturday? Nope, but I have hope knowing they will. Am I alone? No, I am not. We all know there was a fourth man in the fire. Don’t you know that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego felt the heat, saw the flame but didn’t get burnt? Just because God was with them didn’t mean they were removed from the furnace, immediately. When King Nebuchadnezzar called them out of the furnace, He praised their God, our God [Daniel 3:14–29]. I’m still in the furnace, but I’m not afraid of the flames. My God continues to save me. Lift up your arms, reach for Him. Allow Him to save you, too.

{song suggestion: Another in the Fire by Hillsong United}