ANYONE UP FOR A MILK RUN? UNTRACKED POWDER AWAITS! A LESSON IN PURITY

by edy sutherland | Experiential Teaching & Facilitation, Snowboarding, Spiritual Formation, Wilderness Bible Studies

As we all await the first deluge of winter powder on the slopes, Edy Sutherland’s post is a great appetizer for some of the deeper lessons in purity we can learn from those champagne powder milk runs that await.

Psalm 51:7 Cleanse me with hyssop (truth), and I will be clean; wash me (grace), and I will be whiter than snow.

A LINE IN THE SNOW

I smell the presence of snow. Tiny crystals of water float loosely in heavy crisp air. Each breath refreshes and soothes the cavities of my nose with moisture. The maturing fall season triggers a conditioned reflex response. I salivate for my first turns on untracked pristine white snow. I recall previous years trudging up steep mountains after the first major storm, long before the ski area opens, to surf pillows of Champagne powder.

THERE’S MORE TO SNOW THAT MEETS THE EYE

A sense of “Purity” pours out of every crevice of my soul: pure worship of the marvelous creator and pure obedience to His laws of physics. I strategically flex my ankles, bend my knees and press my hips over the front curved edge of the board. As that turn completes I purposefully retract my hips, extend my knees and release my ankles to begin new movements over the back edge of the board.

The result … a single line etched in the snow.   In human terms we often understand purity as the absence of something dirty. In our efforts we strive to purge our hearts and minds of wrongful thinking and hurtful behaviors. I have come to learn this approach is like removing the dust off the clay ground. It’s still dirt. In truth purity consumes a person as pure white snow blankets the muddy landscape.

So too is our obedience to the laws of God taught perfectly by Jesus. We aren’t to strive for perfection in purity but be consumed with the presence of a pure matchless God. By His divine power, He gives us everything we need for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness through His Son, the Word made flesh (1 Peter 1:3, John 1:14). A fullness of His goodness leaves no room for impure cravings, impure thoughts, impure behaviors, or impure motivations.

Like newborn babies, crave PURE spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. – 1 Peter 2:2-3

UNTRACKED POWDER

Many mornings, while visitors sipped coffee by the fire, I attended early snowboard instructor training sessions. Occasionally, I was given the privilege to drop in on a line of fresh untracked powder. We called them “milk runs.” Without all the work of climbing the mountain for myself, I settled in to a “fresh sesh” of untracked “pow.” These moments were thrilling elations of “Wheee!”

Today, as a mother of two living in the Sonoran desert of Arizona, my days of early morning “drop-ins” are limited. I can however still experience the same thrill as I read the pages of my Bible. God’s living Word never fails to pour out a fresh glass of cold refreshing spiritual food for my soul.

Got milk?

Without the all-consuming presence of a holy God, I’m left to trudge in the mire of mud season always waiting for the first snow to come.

PERSONAL APPLICATION

Consider how you approach purity in your life?

Do you participate in the practice of removing the “dust from the dirt” or do you cleanse yourself with the Word of God and be washed in the forgiveness of sins by the blood of Christ?