Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105
My headlamp is one of my most used, multipurposed and treasured pieces of equipment. I use it every day, morning and evening and not just for hiking in the early or late hours of the day. I use it for setting up and tearing down camp, for preparing meals, for journaling, for first aid measures (taping up feet for the day mostly), for scaring wildlife or rodents away during the night, for those vexing evening calls of nature, and the list goes on and on.
I’m an early morning riser; usually getting up sometime between 4 and 5 a.m. So, I obviously need a little more radiance than my mere presence can produce. Actually, I needed A LOT more. At that time of the morning, I don’t even have a face I can love! 😊
On this particular morning in Pennsylvania, I got up VERY early. The day before, I was getting pummeled by a steady, driving, cold, nasty rain. At 1:40 pm, I came to a side trail that led down to the Leroy Smith Shelter. I stopped to think about my options. Do I continue on, getting colder and wetter but gaining more miles? Or, do I make it a short day, stopping to get warm and dry? This time, the squeaky wheel, meaning my flesh, got the grease. Getting warm and dry won the day. So, I dropped my sails and turned hard to port, changing my heading from a southerly direction to the east and down the ridge to the shelter from the storm.
I figured I’d get cleaned up, eat and go right to bed. This would allow me to get up extra early to make up for the time I’d lost by stopping early. It was so nice to get out of my cold wet clothes and to layer up in some dry, warm long johns.
It was still pouring when I climbed into the arms of my marvelously warm sleeping bag. At this point I was so thankful for that squeaky wheel. 😊
Thankfully, when I woke up at 1:15 am, the stars were out in all their glory. Thank you, Lord, for turning the spicket off.
I hiked a lot of miles that day, 32 actually. My highest mileage day on the AT. I could not have done it without my treasured headlamp. And you REALLY need a good headlamp in Rocksylvania!! Those rock laden trails are just aching for a chance to ruin your day or your entire hike if they can! A good headlamp will go a long way in keeping your feet out of the grip of those rocky snares.
The Word of God is the headlamp that keeps my spiritual feet out of the snares that the world, my flesh and the devil set for me. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,” (Psalm 119:105). The Word of God is as bright a lamp as you can get! It is powered by 100 percent truth. It is what has given me wisdom through the years and what gave me the wisdom to stop and call it a day. “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy,” (James 3:17). God doesn’t make it difficult to gain this profitable wisdom either. “The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand,” (Psalm 119:130, NLT)
There are things that we all treasure above others that we carry in our backpack. It might be our food, our sleeping mat, our warm, clean, dry clothes at the end of the day, our headlamp or something else.
These things are truly great blessings to us and worth the weight they require us to carry. But we must never forget that nothing can even come close to providing us the benefits that God and His Word can. If we have not realized how the Word of God can brighten up our great adventure, I can’t encourage you enough to pack it and read it daily. There is no way that taking God along as one of your daily hiking companions can’t significantly improve your adventure in life! 😊
If I may make another suggestion, begin by reading in the books of the Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Gospel of John.
Faith Aids 