ECHO'S IN THE HILLS

As a little girl I remember traveling to Tennessee 

and Alabama to visit with my grandparents, aunts, 

uncles and all my cousins.  One of the highlights 

of our trip was going to my mothers parents house

in the holler down into the depths of Alabama

As we would drive closer to my grandparents house 

some of us kids would be filled with excitement.  

I don't mean a reserved type of excitement.
We were very excited because before you could

reach MawMaw and PawPaw's house you traveled
over some hills that our father made a fun
experience for small children and then the last
hill before reaching our grandparents house seemed
as if it would take forever to get from it to their
house down in the holler.

Once we arrived, it was time to hike down the road
to our uncles house or up the hill right behind
their little house.  We would climb it over
and over and roll down it for what seemed
to small children like a treacherous ride.  

Going back we look at the hill and wonder 

why it seemed so hard to get up it and so far 

to roll down but in our little minds it was 

as fun as going to a theme park and 

spending the day.  

One of the other things that we loved to

do was to go up on the hill behind 

my grandparents house and yell out. 

As we would yell you could hear the 

echo ring through the holler.  It seemed 

like our little voices carried for miles and 

miles and just kept on resounding whatever

we yelled out.  

As I was praying this morning my heart 

was yearning to find the best way possible 

for my immediate family and my extended 

family and people I come in contact with daily
to hear the vibrations and echo's of my 

soul.  For the words we say not fall on empty 

ground but that it might go out for miles

and miles and become louder as it traveled.  

The one thing I noticed as a small child is minutes

after I stopped yelling out, "H  E  L  L  O" that
the echo would stop.  I would have to wait a

minute or two and then yell the words out again

if I wanted my voice to send the vibration across
the holler and create another echo.  It was
always a beautiful moment when you would

hear one of the cousins or brothers and sisters be 

across on a hill or down the road and as you
listened you would hear their echo
answering you back.  

This was a reminder to me this morning that

not only do we need to send out the message, we 

need to constantly send the message out.  We

need to get excited about the echo it creates and 

even more excited when others begin sending
echos back our direction.  

My grandmother on my fathers side of the family

sent out an echo that still rings in my ears today.  

We would only see her a few times each year but

everything that came out of her mouth were words

of wisdom saturated with the word of God.  There

were many who became angry with her or made 

remarks to her because her words were not always

in agreement with their lifestyle.  

The one thing I must say is, she never stopped 

sending the echo out up until her last breath and 

because her echo was heard there have been many

who have come to Christ because of it.  Some of her

children who were living their lives totally away 

from God have turned back to the Lord and are 

faithfully serving him.  This didn't happen
immediately.  It took years and years of her
climbing above her own selfish mountainous desires
and yearnings and sending out a message
constantly that reminded each of us that the Lord
loves us and he is not going to give up on his
children and he is coming again one day
so you better get your house 

in order and you better start living for Jesus.
Those were the words she spoke nearly
every time we was around her. 

So as I packed my bags to head off to work,

I asked the Lord to give me wisdom as to
how we need to shake the hills with an
echo that will never die. 

During my day I was escorted and shown
a magnificent training room that
broadcast across America and was
reminded that even though we don't
have a camera and microphone
and millions of dollars to broadcast
we can still be sending out echo's
across the hills that God has laid before us.

HEBREWS 12:1-2

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed 

about with so great a cloud of witnesses, 

let us lay aside every weight, and the sin 

which doth so easily beset us, and let us 

run with patience the race that is set before us,

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher 

of our faith; who for the joy that was set before 

him endured the cross, despising the shame, and 

is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.