Things I Learned from Hiking the Appalachian Trail: Part Three

Things look good on paper...but, then, there's reality. Looking at a map of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park (sitting in the comfort of a cabin), 20 miles of the Appalachian Trail doesn't seem that long. Then, there's the reality: a 20 mile hike takes a lot of effort. Writing a note on my refrigerator saying that I'm going to wake up every morning at 5:30, and go to LBL to ride the mountain bike trails for 2 hours...seems like a pretty simple goal to write down. Then, there's reality: waking up at 5:30 to exercise is hard! Things look pretty good on paper...but, then, there's reality.

"The unfolding of Your word gives light..." (Psalm 119:130). The Word of God looks good in written form. Every word sitting on a table at home...inked onto thinly sliced wax-paper, bound in leather. It's perfect! It's flawless! It's absolute! Then, there's the reality of my sin-filled life...the reality of my imperfections, my flaws, my transgressions. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness..." (Matthew 5:6) Seems like a pretty easy-to-read task on paper, right? Except, there's the reality: "All of those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." (II Timothy 3:12). The word of God is easy enough to comprehend on paper...the hard part is making it a reality in my life (it's the translation from paper to practice that will always be the challenge).

Things I Learned from Hiking the Appalachian Trail: Part Two

Living with clubbed feet is a little...different. Not only have the muscles and tendons in my legs developed differently (causing what some call "chicken legs"), but also the motion in my ankles is severely limited causing a kind of jackhammer effect on my feet. Over the course of playing basketball, racquetball, or hiking long distances...my feet will throb with pain, and the next day I will walk with a noticeable (and pain-filled) limp. It's been like that as long as I can remember.

This is what makes my decision to hike 20 miles of the Appalachian Trail with one of my best friends since birth (Seth Grogan) seem so absolutely ridiculous. I knew before I ever set foot on that trail what I was in for...yet I chose to take a walk up to the top of a 5,000 foot mountain ridge with a 30 pound pack on my back, knowing the shape my feet would be in after the first day!

The morning after our first ten miles, my feet were feeling like someone had jabbed knives into the tops of my ankles. Growing up, I had spent numerous summers working in row after row of tobacco, for weeks at a time...but this pain was like nothing I had ever felt. There was no amount of labor on the farm or endless summer basketball games that had ever given me the feeling I had last Friday morning. Grogan, on the other hand, is half Shirpa and could've climbed Mount Everest at that point.

About five miles into our ten mile exit hike...I laid down next to a log with my head on my pack. I was exhausted and hurting. After a few minutes rest, I stood up. Grogan grabbed my pack and said, "Ready to go?". I tried to get him to put it down, but he's part mule, which manifested itself in his ability to carry both my pack (and his) the last five miles of our hike...like it was nothing.

Solomon said, "...there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother." (Proverbs 18:24). Some have used this verse to describe the relationship of Christ to God's children, and such is an accurate description. However, there are people who walk with us through life's trials and pain...friends who help us up when we fall, friends who will help us carry our weights and burdens through every rocky path...friends that truly become closer than our own flesh and blood. Thank God for those friends.

Things I Learned from Hiking the Appalachian Trail: Part One

After 10 miles of hiking from Fontana Dam to the Mollie's Ridge Shelter, up 5,000 feet of elevation, my body felt like it was shutting down. There were times that I thought my feet could take no more punishment from the rocky terrain of the Great Smokey Mountains...times I thought I was going to lay down between a log and a boulder and not get back up until the next day. My body was at its breaking point, but I wasn't going to quit. I was going to make it to the ridge shelter for the night...there was no other choice. There was no exit strategy that day, there was no cop out, no trail back to civilization...it was a feeling I have rarely felt in my life: desperation. No matter how much it hurt, I had to keep going. There was no getting back, but by going forward... there was no other choice. NO OTHER CHOICE.

There are too many "exit strategy" Christians...too many followers of God looking for a way around (or out of) difficult choices and paths placed before them, and God is waiting for us to realize that in carrying the cross of Christianity, we must always press on. No high roads to take when we're in the valleys...no off ramps when walking through the shadows. We must press on, no matter what life takes or gives!

Yet, in our instantly gratified existences, there's no longer that desperation to make us appreciate all the good gifts we are given by the "Father of lights" (James 1:17). Such simplicities of life are daily taken for granted: water, food, family...housing, travel, communication. Things don't seem as sweet until they're taken away, or we can't access them with ease. Relationships are more appreciated when there's no longer a cell phone tower to bounce a loved one's voice into our ear, or Internet chatter to discover the latest adventures of life. When there's no 300 horsepower SUV to take us over long distances, we thank the good Lord for the two feet He gave us (no matter how slowly they may walk).

Through desperation comes an awesome sense of humility and gratitude. We begin to truly bear our cross...we walk - not with the expectation of the material - not with an attitude of deservance, but we walk with a faith (in God) that the uncertainties of life are most certainly in His hands. We walk with a trust that, though the way is rough and steep, we will someday find rest. We walk in desperation, knowing that this world is simply a pathway that leads to a destination far greater than any discomfort this life can ever hold...and we must press on.