The Witness Pile

It struck me earlier today about how much I miss worship. For anyone who has any belief structure, worship, or reverence, for your creator, orchestrator, developer, or however you see it is a requirement. It is in part how you show you are a believer. Some have objects, altars, and symbols. Some have certain rituals that are performed. Whatever the case, you understand worship.

As for me, in my house, worship includes singing, reading the Bible and searching the internet to gain clarification on things that I have read. This can happen at any given moment, at the hearing of a word or phrase, or even a news article that leads me down a rabbit hole of searching and learning. I really love it. But how in the world (or rather heaven) did I end up thinking about worship!  Let me show you.
It began with my friend complaining that she’s living in Gilead with everything that is going on with where she lives. My first thought… “a balm in Gilead”. Then I had to listen to a song of the same title. This led me to wonder, where is Gilead? What does it mean? This then led me to Google the meaning, which referenced several scriptures that led to more scripture. See rabbit hole. But I found it.

Gilead, as a noun, describes a mountainous region in modern day Jordan, but has an origin on words that mean heap or hill and witness or testimony. Then I also found that, as a pronoun, may also translate to eternal joy. Now how true all of this is, I don’t know. I found it on the internet. However, what I read, it led me to a path that threw me deeper into worship. And here’s why.

We always face mountains and heaps of trouble in our lives that are not meant to destroy us. Sometimes, those mountains are there to protect and deter us from unseen enemies. Other times, those mountains are meant for us to climb to see how far we have come and how we need to prepare to move forward. And even still, rocks fall from the mountains to help us build smaller mounds, such as houses to cover us, stoves to cook food, and seats and beds to find rest. Gilead has taken me from curiosity to rubble to provision to gratefulness to eternal joy – which is so much easier to carry than the weight of the pebbles that form my troubles.

Truth be told, my troubles are my testimony… my Gilead, my Witness pile. Without them, how would I believe? Why would I even seek out God or any help for that matter? The lie we tell ourselves is that we carry these troubles, when the reality is we are meant to dominate them and walk over them. Use them to elevate us, never to break us. They are the simple reminders that God is always watching over us even when we can’t see Him.  
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“Then Laban declared, this pile of stones will stand as a witness to remind us of the covenant we have made today.” This explains why it was called Gilead— “Witness Pile.” But it was also called Mizpah (which means “watchtower”), for Laban said, “May the Lord keep watch between us to make sure that we keep this covenant when we are out of each other’s sight.” ~Genesis 31: 48 – 49