Thundering Quotes

Wilderness Tour ’15 – Thundering Quotes

This Calvary’s Thread post is more whimsical than most found in this venue. Don’t let that fool you. I took serious joy in collecting these quotes during our Tuesday hike to the Tuolumne swimming hole. A couple of other strategic areas during the day yielded quotable material as well. For me, this is a joy that can only be experienced while talking with members of Christ’s Family. There is one quote that I sincerely plan on resisting but feel compelled to report it anyway in the effort to be fair and objective. I’ll leave it to the reader to determine which it is knowing that the sleepiest will get it right away.

Thunder rolled around off and on throughout our trek alongside the Tuolumne River in the highlands of The Yosemite National Park. Thunder plays a big role in the bible and my thoughts on the phenomenon bounced around like echoes and conjured thoughts about what could be determined in the sound of it. Here are a few that I found flipping through the scriptures:

Mark 3:17 “James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means ‘sons of thunder’…”

Job 40:9 “Do you have an arm like God’s and can your voice thunder like his?”

Isaiah 29:6 “the Lord Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise…”

1 Samuel 12:18 “Then Samuel called on the Lord, and that same day the Lord sent thunder and rain…”

And Psalm 77:18 “Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world…”

While on the trail and upon our return to the trailhead I asked some of my hiking partners from the day their thoughts on thunder. The following are some of their quotes, I’ll leave it to you to determine who the various speakers might have been:

• “We are racing the rain.”
• “Brian.” (for obvious biological reasons)
• “Jesus’ stomach growling…”
• “Bowling” and “God Bowling”
• “Voice of God”
• “There is a song about thunder being God’s voice and not fearing the sound of His voice…”
• “Rattling sheet metal…”

During our commute to and from Tuolumne Meadows for the day’s hike two things stood out to me from our discussions. One was a new term coined by our own Josh Horton, “Assurement”. This ersatz writer’s attempts to define the term came up blank and I can only say that I believe he was using the French term “assurément”. I can attest to you that the term “Bus Plunge” we discussed during our traverse through the Tioga Pass with shear drop-offs and without the benefit of guardrails was no assurément. Thanks be to God for Doug’s expert driving.

One of my own quotes elicited a good laugh but will go on to be the basis of a more serious post later this week. My new friend Michael Lopez gave an inspirational morning talk. One take away I had was “Don’t Tex and climb.” A humorous quote for really serious point that I will attempt to do justice to in a subsequent post.

Scene of the crime: The Burger Barn in Bishop California. The crime: several of our burger hounds had pulled three tables together around the corner of a building and I was the last to go round to find a seat. One of the excellent Burger Barn employees, a heavily tattooed young man and eager to please, picked up a chair and carried it around the corner for me. As he set the chair down at the far end he said, “I’ll just set this down here for you, Pop.” Nuff said.

Tuolumne Swimming Hole
and Slide

My favorite quote of the day came while I was swimming with Sammy Kennedy at the waterhole. There is a main pool fed by a smaller upper hole via a gentle, six-foot slide. Young Oh had been the first use the slide, the older boys who ventured to swim, Michael Van Citters and Austin Marks, followed suit. I swam over to enjoy the cold spa feeling of sitting under the waterfalls feeding the upper pool. When Sammy, an 11 year old jewel complete with his red baseball cap, came to the pool and worked his way over to the slide I asked him if he was going to slide down. To my inquiry he turned and gave me a serious look while saying, “I feel it is part of my obligation of being a boy.” He turned back to the task and promptly slid down to the great pool below.

To all my friends and readers, I wish for you to stay in touch with your inner child and adhere to the obligations therein, to go about life in happiness, and with Joy in your heart. Hear the thunder and smile.

In His grip, jerry