Although God has filled nature with incredible variety and awesomeness, some of that creation is just plain annoying…, at best.
For example, in New Jersey, I was literally “wiping” the mosquitoes off me! Slapping took too much time, impeded too few drillings and killed too few of the insect terrorists. It was as if you needed to keep your eye out for trees you could get your arms around in case they decided to just carry you off to some secluded, nightmarish, swampy lair to leisurely feed on you there. I was out of repellent and my mind was on the verge of a nuclear meltdown! (I eventually went to town to get me the popular weapon of choice. Deet!)
Another example is keeping up a constant vigil for ticks. Besides the diseases they carry, there is just something really creepy about an insect that buries its head in your body and then sucks the blood out of you while it waves its butt in your face. I wiped down every night just in case I missed one…, or two…, or…, well you get the disturbing idea. (Thankfully I only found two on my adventure and no bullseyes.)
Then there are the blood suckers. Even the name screams “EVIL!” You’re hot, sweaty and so stinky the foliage wilts as you charge towards the pond or lake like a thirst crazed camel running to an oasis. You’re throwing your pack and clothes every which way. Half stripped down and hopping in circles on one foot trying to get a muleheaded sock off, you stop cold… your eye catches a black squiggly thing in the water! So what do you do? You look around and wish you didn’t! Blood suckers seem to always have large families. If you’re hot, sweaty and stinky enough you still go in, but you don’t enjoy it as much as you would like. All you can think about is that these blood suckers are going to turn you into a raisin. (I was blessed by never being kissed by one.)
There are several other annoying necessary evils like noseeums, gnats, poison ivy and oak, roots, mud, Rocksylvania to name a few. And no avid hiker can forget the “constant” spider webs and worm strands. You tango with them from Georgia to Maine! They are in your face (pun intended) morning, night and day, as well as every time in-between! If you are the first one on the trail in the morning, “Woe is unto you!” (I don’t know how many miles I walked on the Appalachian Trail [AT] with a branch in my hand to collect the webs before my face did.) Sometimes it’s a joke at the shelter or campsite when several hikers, ready to start their hike for their day are saying things like: “After you.” “No, I insist, after you.” “Age before beauty.” “Ladies before gentlemen.” “I went first yesterday.” “Listen, I’ll give you ten bucks if you’ll just go first!” Those webs are so annoying! Then on top of that, at times when you feel that sinister spider crawling over your ear or on the back of your neck it’s even worse. You just “know” that it is a Recluse or Black Widow spider. That’s when you become well acquainted with your reaction time skills. Some even have dancing skills that are incredibly creative and impressive. It’s a blend of break and grunge dancing. (I got bit by a few spiders even though I did the dance!)
The AT and everywhere else your feet may take you in life are filled with annoying necessary evils of life. There is no way or place to escape them all. All we can do is learn to deal with them.
Even nature itself struggles with these annoyances. I don’t understand the language of nature, but God does, and He says in Romans 8:22,We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (NIV) That’s some serious groaning. (Am I right or am I right, ladies?)
The world and everything in it was broken at the fall of mankind with Adam and Eve’s sin of eating the forbidden fruit. This is the reason for these now, consequential necessary evils. God is eventually going to correct that, but until then…
God tells us in the Song of Solomon 2:15 to, Catch us the foxes, the little (annoying) foxes that (dig holes around the vine, eat its tender shoots and blossoms which) spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes (are very vulnerable in these kinds of situations).
We have got to get a handle on these annoying evils before they end up spoiling our AT adventure and daily life. There’s no problem with a little groaning over them as we see even creation is allowed that, but we do have to get a grasp on them. If we don’t, they are just going to keep digging and chewing away at our nerves spoiling our adventures and life in general.
To do this on the AT or in life we need to take all the precautions we can and be willing to put up with the residue as status quo. That means there are some physical things we can do like get some repellant, and there are a lot of mental things that we can do like understand that the little foxes are always going to be around trying to dig holes in our dreams and adventures. But…, we can get a grasp on these rascals and limit their dirty work!
Life is as much of an obstacle course as the AT. So God counsels us in Romans 12:12, to Be joyful in hope (that with God as a hiking partner, we are bigger than any annoyance), patient in affliction (don’t allow these annoyances to push our buttons and get us all twisted up inside), faithful in prayer (remember your fellow hiking friend, God, especially when trying to process our annoyances). (NIV)
It’s when we practice principles like Romans 12:12 that we experience the results of 2 Corinthians 4:16, Therefore we do not lose heart (we don’t allow discouragement and despair to win the day). Though outwardly we are wasting away (even though there is a degree of significant suffering we are experiencing), yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day, (in our heart, mentally and spiritually we are able to move forward one day after another). (NIV)
So, when the next annoying mosquito, tick, spider web, or whatever shows up, and they will, Let your eyes look straight ahead (on that AT); fix your gaze directly before you (on that northern or southern terminus, the final goal). Give careful thought to the paths for your feet (your purposes in life) and be steadfast (enduring, God being your every present companion) in all your ways. Proverbs 4:25–26 (NIV)
Faith Aids 