Psalm 86:17 (NIV)
Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.
Trail signs are a tremendous blessing to keep you pressing on towards the goal set before you. They encourage you in letting you know how far you have traveled and challenge you concerning how much further you need to go. Because I am southbound, a SOBO, starting on Mt. Katahdin in Baxter State Park, ME, I have traveled 1,869.6 miles thus far in my adventure. I have 320 more miles to go to the end of the Appalachian Trail (AT) at Springer Mountain, GA.
Signs also help you calculate your miles per hour. They help you to give your shuttle driver an approximate time you will reach the road, or a hiking partner where and when you will rendezvous. They assure you that you are going the right direction. 😊 (I think we have all gone the wrong direction a time or two on the AT and you cannot believe how FRUSTRATING that is!) ☹ Signs help you to adjust your goals for the day if you need to. They help you to plan when and where you will camp for the night. They help you to plan when you will hit a town to resupply and to ration your food if you need to. (Or to give your extra food away so you can travel lighter and faster in order to bask in TOWN FOOD!) 😉 They allow you to inform a slower or faster hiking partner or friend exactly where you are. They help you to decide where and how long to take a break. In a more critical way, they let you know your options if you have suffered an injury, or are suffering from severe weather and need to get off the trail A.S.A.P.
One day when I was hiking through the White Mountains in New Hampshire, I was hiking from the Greenleaf Hut to the New Zealand Hut. It was raining, very foggy and 60+ mph sustained winds with up to 74 mph gusts. (Try walking through that with a full pack to catch all that wind like a sail on your back! It was actually pretty awesome, but not the point of my story.) 😊
After being buffeted during the morning, or maybe I should say, after being buffeted upon (like at a restaurant) by the wind, I stopped at the Galehead Hut for a reprieve from the severe elements. (The Hut certainly was appropriately named for the day.)
After warming up some and having a snack, I zipped all my zippers back up, cinched all my flaps back down, put my bungee straps back around my pack cover and stepped away from the Galehead Hut and headed into the gale force before me.
It was a steep, rocky, slimy climb in the rain and fog to the summit of South Twin Mountain. I met StromCrow along the ascent. The wind was crazy wild, the fog was thicker than pea soup, and the rain had a bite to it when the gale drove it head on into your face on the summit. We looked like pinball balls bouncing back and forth off of the big boulders trying our best to get off the summit and into the tree line.
We were so happy when we finally did reach the tree line that we did not notice we were on the wrong trail for a bit. Viking, another AT hiker, was stopped ahead of us staring at the blaze on a tree beside him. We walked up to him and stared at the same blaze. We all began groaning in a gloomy, dark harmony. The blaze was BLUE! It was supposed to be WHITE! ☹ We were on the wrong trail which meant… we had to go back up to the summit in order to find the right trail.
We decided to stick together at that point, mentioning that we would be safer and more productive together than on our own in this kind of weather. After making our pact, we set out for the summit… again. ☹
When we got to the summit, we stayed within sight of one another in the fog and made an all-out search for the right trail. We could only find the wrong trail and the trail coming up from the Hut though. Through squinting eyes, we were desperately looking everywhere for a sign, ANY KIND OF A SIGN, but could not find one.
Here we were, stuck on the top of this summit like a ship caught on a reef being buffeted by a gale threatening to rip the ship apart if it did not get off soon.
Suddenly a UFO shot past me during our search that I discovered later was StormCrow’s pack cover. It went by so fast; I had no idea what it was at the time. The wind had ripped it off his pack even though he had it lashed down! For all I knew, the boulders had even given up trying to hang on to the top of that mountain and were flying off!
We were about to just head for cover anywhere to get a breather when a group of hikers appeared on the summit seemingly out of nowhere! They came up the trail we needed to go down! THANK YOU, LORD, FOR PROVIDING A SIGN when there was none to be found! What a present help and comfort You are!
Boy, did we ever shoot down that trail happy as could be; almost kissing every white blaze we came to. You would have thought that someone gave us each a million dollars! 😊
Even though we could not find a physical sign to get us off that storm ravaged summit and into the comfort of the tree line, God provided us a sign of another kind.
Signs are not always bolted to trees and posts or painted on the stony surface of a wilderness trail. God sometimes provides a sign through a reminder of a verse of His truth. Sometimes He uses the counsel of a friend or even a stranger. Frequently, a sign comes through an impression from the Holy Spirit. God has been known to use a dream or vision or two as well.
These Scriptures, friends, strangers, impressions, dreams, and visions often times appear seemingly out of nowhere like the strangers did on South Twin Mountain. And just as we would have been incredibly foolish if we had not followed the direction God provided on that mountain, we would be just as foolish in not following any direction God provides us anywhere and at any time in life.
We would have suffered some sever consequences if we had not trusted and followed God’s sign that day. We would also have surrendered the joy and comfort the direction was meant to provide which is a byproduct of trusting and following Him.
I STILL years later, remember that turbulent mountain top, and I am STILL blessed and marvel when I think of God’s loving intervention on our behalf that day.
God tells us through the prophet Samuel in 2 Samuel 22:31, “As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.” (NKJV)
God explains through the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 10:23 why the above verse is so gloriously wonderful and pertinent to our lives. “O Lord [pleads Jeremiah in the name of the people], I know that [the determination of] the way of a man is not in himself; it is not in man [even in a strong man or in a man at his best] to direct his [own] steps.” (AMP)
We have all kinds of enemies in this adventure of life. Some of our enemies are the people around us. Sometimes our enemy is demonic. At other times the enemy is our circumstances. But more often than not, we are probably our own worst enemy. We need signs on a regular basis from God of goodness towards us every day, in order that we may find the help and comfort necessary for our physical and spiritual wellbeing.
The great news is that God guarantees that His direction will be there whenever we need it. The only question is, will we heed it and find our way over those stormy mountains…
I kept a journal of every day I hiked the AT. It is something that is both precious and beneficial to me each time I read a portion of it. I am constantly reminded of the endless signs God provided me along the adventure.
Maybe if we began to journal the signs that we noticed where God provided for us along our adventure of life, God and life would not only become more precious to us, but His precious signs would benefit and comfort us more as well in our earthly journey.
Faith Aids 