Cornered By Greatness

My Son's Encounter With The Ineffable

This past weekend my son Courage and I spent a few days in the wilderness for his transition to becoming a teenager. I have been learning and developing rites of passage experiences for him as he transitions into these formative years of becoming a young man. We camped near the shores of Lake Superior where he ended up having an awe-full and ineffable encounter with God on his birthday. The encounter came through an experience in nature and continued in a dream that same night.

On our last night, we had set up camp directly above the shoreline of Lake Superior at a more secluded campsite. We continually heard the rhythmic waves crashing below and sometimes they sounded as if they were breaking the boundaries in which they were designed to be contained. The clearing above us was going to reveal those open skies with minimal light pollution where darkness reveals those multiple lights that tell us there is more going on behind our cities artificial lights. We built a fire, enjoyed a camp meal, and enjoyed our conversation.

As the skies became darker we would often look away from the fire into the sky to see more lights appear above us. Every 10 minutes or so, we’d look again as the slowly darkening sky would give way to even more lights. This continued until the sky was littered with these tiny dots no bigger than a quarter, yet we knew our perspective is not factual here. At least not if we are measuring by the apparent size of things.

Courage had been asking if we could go down to the shoreline together once it got this dark so we could see the stars over Lake Superior. We made our way down the steep hill through the trees and stepped out onto the rocks. The waves were crashing against the rocks and the sky was lit up with new lights and formations. I could feel the fear emanating from Courage as he said something like, “I am so afraid right now.” The immensity of the Lake with that open Sky was bringing him face to face with a power so much bigger than himself. He was trembling in wonder. 

He said:

“I was cornered by Greatness.”

As we returned around the fire we processed what he was experiencing. Wisdom came into his words as he started to verbalize a much larger perspective about his life. It was around that fire where he described this as being “cornered by Greatness” and it would be close to that fire, where he would soon fall asleep only to continue to experience this in a deeper dimension. That night, he dreamed a dream.

Though I also think God was dreaming him.

In the dream he was back on the shoreline trembling at the site of the waves crashing into the rocks. “It was so great and powerful, I knew nothing but God was greater because He created it.” Suddenly, he lost his balance and slid down into the water at the shallow shoreline, but within seconds the waves would crash over his head and sweep him out into the powerful lake. Eventually, he was losing energy trying to stay above the water, while drifting further out into the open waves. As he was near the brink of death knowing there was no help nearby, he surrendered knowing nothing but God could save him. 

In his own words:

All of the sudden, I was lifted from the water by a powerful force and was shooting up into the air until I broke from the earth’s atmosphere and saw a great sight above me. There were stars, galaxies, comets, asteroids, other planets, bright lights, and colors. All of which were shining and glimmering around me. I looked down where I saw our planet but was covered with a purple color, like the atmosphere was and it was impossible to see through. Just purple, nothing else but a purple planet. Then I started moving forward around our planet getting a view of our solar system, and I again was cornered by greatness. I was starting to finish the lap around the earth when I felt God all around me; great power and love. It was like I heard Him say,

“Look all around you. I have made greater things than you’ve even thought of. Let it be known to you that sometimes the waters are calm, but in the storm it can sweep you away. Or the height your soul is at, could be the greatest fall your body takes. There are many things in the world I have made for good, but if you don’t respect them, they can be life threatening. Respect what I have made and stay righteous with Me. Treat other humans in the same way because I have made them in My image. I have made all living creatures and you should acknowledge them, because they acknowledge those who are righteous. Trust in Me and you will never fall.”

Then I stopped and saw I was back to where I started and the Earth below me started to appear. It was no longer purple. Then I felt the force that was keeping me up go away. I was falling, down and down I went cutting through the atmosphere and I saw the huge ocean-like lake below me and I thought I would die hitting the waters, but I didn’t. I lightly splashed into the water. There was no need to swim, my head was kept above the water and the waves calmed down as I slowly drifted back to shore. I climbed out onto the solid rock where I gave thanks to God for being cornered by greatness. 

I am so thankful to God my son had this experience and will leave you here to enjoy what emerges for you from it. May we too, come to realize we are “Cornered by Greatness” and respect the journey we are on in this world.

-PH