All Alone with Nobody but You (Part 1)

We not only pack up all our supplies when we head out to spend days, weeks or months on the Appalachian Trail (AT), but we also take with us all the “stuff” we have packed into our lives throughout the years. A lot of it is pretty light stuff, but a significant portion of it is really heavy and at times we struggle under the weight it places on our shoulders.

We all seek to hike the AT for a lot of different reasons. For many it revolves around things like the challenge, the adventure, a love for nature, it’s on the bucket list, a simpler life for a while, to be a part of an adventurous community of people, to draw attention to a nonprofit organization, or just for something to try or do before we get a job, new job or after we retire.

For others it’s more serious. Their world has ceased to exist as they once knew it. It might be a broken relationship, the death of a loved one, loss of an important job or position, and or simply feeling lost in life and not knowing how of if they can proceed.

Whether we get on the trail for any of these reasons or for some other reason, we will all without exception be challenged in every area of our personal life.

Some of those places may be terrifyingly dark and gravely sensitive. We can’t build a wall high or thick enough to keep them from being touched by the trail though. While we pound out the miles our mind will eventually take some side trails. Trails that cut through every defense mechanism we try to employ to stay out of the boggy abyss. It will do it as easily as water soaks our footwear no matter how determinedly or creatively we try to avoid it.

The mind will cut us some slack for a state or two, but it will eventually get around to saying, “Hey, you remember all those times you said to yourself and others you’ll address ‘whatever’ later?” Well, on the AT the mind more often than you want says, “Guess what!? It’s later…”

How are we going to escape when we willingly positioned ourselves deep in the middle of the wilderness!? Vulnerable, alone, unsupported and with nothing but time for the mind to roam around in our heads. And, to what depths is the mind willing to sink…?

We can’t run to another room in the house, golf course, work, run an errand, visit a coffee shop, return to an ongoing project, etc. We look all around in our green tunnel along our ribbon of dirt for an escape, but to no avail.

The trees are no help, they can hardly hide the smirk on their face as their leaves jiggle with their giggles. A lot of help they are.

The rocks and boulders are no help either. They just stare stone-faced at our facial pleadings. Expressionless. Cold. Lifeless. Hard. Talk about getting the cold shoulder. Thanks…  A lot of help you are.

The streams offer no refreshing relief. They just babble on about how cool they are. They think they are the current splash in the world of nature but are in reality all wet. More often than not, they are only making a little ripple in the rushing world. You are nothing but a little drip to them. A little trivial undercurrent in the mainstream of things. That’s harsh man.

Forget about the sky offering any help, it’s already blue. As clueless as it is cloudless in offering an escape.  A vast and empty space with nowhere to run for cover. Really!?

So, we turn back to our mind, wide-eyed and with pleading eyes that are begging for mercy. But our mind reminds us that the so-called mercy we are pleading for is what has allowed us to get this far with little liberating, positive life transforming results.  The mind in a matter-of-fact way says, “Now’s not the time for mercy, but for hard truth.”

Being alone with our mind can be a really intimidating experience. For some… a literal nightmare.

We end up being our own nomadic interrogation room with all of nature observing behind the glass as our mind grills us.

Sometimes our mind can be more menacing than anything we might find in nature. (Where’s a good bear or rattlesnake scare when you need one!)

Hiking the AT gives the mind a tremendous advantage and incentive to pull out all the stops.  We put yourself in the perfect environment and condition for self-reflection.

We think mostly about pleasant matters, but to a significant extent we also think of unpleasant affairs.  I know I have watered many sections of the AT with my tears as my sobs echoed off of one tree to the next.

It’s during these times that we need not a pack shakedown to get rid of unnecessary and excess weight, but a mind shakedown to get rid of unnecessary and excess mental and emotional weight.

If we have offended someone, we need to ask them for forgiveness. Been offended, let the person know and forgive them if they ask for it. Stole or broke something, ask for forgiveness and replace it. Lost our way, select something to try from the healthy options before us? Suffered the loss of an irreplaceable loved one, how can we celebrate their life through ours going forward? Been deeply hurt by someone you trusted, how can we process this without becoming bitter, cynical, apathetic, vengeful, depressed, etc.? Been broken, how can we use this as a springboard to put ourself back together in a new, transformed and fulfilling way?

I know these things are a lot more complex and painfully laborious to process than the short quips I have offered. They are not meant to be the solution, but to offer a doorway to step through to begin to explore some solutions.

Whether you determine to be a SOBO or NOBO HIKER, a FLIP-FLOPPER, THRU-HIKER or SECTION-HIKER, to get to the other end of the AT you have to start somewhere. From there you have to progressively commit to putting one foot in front of the other. So it is with managing the more serious and sensitive boggy issues in our life.

Our Creator God knows this too and offers us His hand. “Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will (progressively) give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will (progressively) find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28–30 (NLT)

God knows the counsel He offers will not be easy to apply, but He assures us He “only” has our best in mind. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

The first counsel God instructs us to apply is to come to Him to find forgiveness for our past, present and even future sin. “Whoever believes in Him (Christ, God the Son) should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world (the entire human race) that He gave His only begotten Son (to die for our sin, the penalty of sin being death [Romans 5:12]), that whoever believes in Him (asks Jesus to apply the value of His death on our behalf, to our sin account [Ephesians 2:8-10]) should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (rescued). John 3:15–17

“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  And He Himself is the propitiation (acceptable sacrifice) for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” 1 John 2:1–2

After taking care of the most critical and eternal issue in our lives by confessing and turning away from our sin, placing saving faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sin, we are now ready to discover the new and more abundant life He offers us in our earthly life.

“These things (the Scriptures) I have written to you who believe (place saving faith) in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life (not wonder or hope, but know), and that you may continue to believe (place practical faith) in the name of the Son of God (for your daily lives).” 1 John 5:13

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him (Jesus). Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He (Jesus) is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” 1 John 3:1–2

“… I have come that they may have (spiritual) life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10

Now the doors have been unlocked for us the “weary and heavy burdened” to find the rest we seek in every area of our earthly life. (In part 2 I’ll expand more concerning this incredible blessing.)

To get an AT Hangtag, you must sign up to thru-hike the trail. They are not just something anyone can get as they have a specific number on them that states for example, you are the 53^rd individual to attempt a thru hike on that specific year. Now that individual is recognized everywhere thereafter as being a thru-hiker.

God tells us that in order to get into His heaven we must not get an AT Hangtag, but to get our get into heaven Jesus-Tag. We get this by placing saving faith in Jesus Christ, God the Son for the forgiveness of our sins.

Jesus did the work that we could not do for ourselves. Our part is asking Jesus to apply the value of His death on the cross to our sin account. God tells us in Acts 4:12, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

After placing saving faith in Christ, the new gospel believer is recognized by God and other gospel believers everywhere and forever thereafter as being a child of God. Seriously consider not leaving this life without the salvation Christ bought and paid for with His life and “offers” to us all. (This message of salvation is covered in great detail in faithaids.com in the article “The Gospel: Genisis to Revelation.”)