The joy of our heart has ceased; our dance has turned into mourning.
(Lamentations 5:15)
On two of my section hikes it rained, at least some, every day. On a third, every day but one. Hiking in water gushing boots eventually tore up my feet, eroded away my joy, and turned the dance in my hike into a forced march. It was not the wonderful adventure I usually enjoyed. Instead of wishing the end of a section hike didn’t come so soon, I was feeling it couldn’t end soon enough. All I could think about was going home. I was not a happy camper. I was often soaked, cold and always hurting. I was slipping, sliding and falling. I was eating a lot of cold meals because I didn’t want to cook a warm one in the rain. Each time I set up my tent at the end of the day, my dry gear was a little wetter. I looked like I had gone mudding all day in someone’s open Jeep. I smelled like musty old clothes of bygone days stashed in a damp basement. I waited until the last possible minute to put yesterday’s wet, cold, scuzzy hiking clothes back on in the morning to collect the next days layer of ooze.
So what do you do!? Hiking the Appalachian Trail, (AT) is a privilege; it shouldn’t be an ordeal! If I viewed the AT an ordeal in principle, I should trade it in for a better privilege. But that was not the case. I loved hiking the AT! Well, normally I did.
I knew that the conditions were the issue, not the adventure. You would think then, I should still be feeling gratitude and excitement, not misery and desperation. I knew I didn’t want to look back at these rainy sections later regretting I didn’t get more out of them. But you can’t change the conditions or help what you “feel” at times.
But, I can change the way I “think” about seasons like this. Since hiking the AT is not the issue, the conditions are, I need to look down the road as I slog along and mentally age this trip several weeks or months to garner the joy out of it. I need to focus on the reality that if I can stay at the task and persevere, looking back on this trip could realistically be one of my most life changing and thus delayed yet rewarding sections of the AT! Instead of concentrating on the now, I need to focus more on the then. The only way to get to the then, is to press through the now. Being energized to put that next step, and the one after that, by focusing on what I “know” rather than allowing what I “feel” to sabotage my future reward. You can’t short-circuit the aging process of a good cheese. So much the more life’s most challenging lessons.
Now, my conditions have some value and purpose to them. Now they are more than just misery. Now they become a necessary and integral part of the whole that causes the personal transformation that takes place after walking through the conditions and wilderness from Maine to Georgia.
In James 1:2–4 God describes perfectly this principle. “My brethren, count it (you don’t have to FEEL it, but REGARD it) all (without exception) joy when you fall into various trials (even all the waterlogged days and weeks on the AT), 3 knowing that (with some aging/time) the testing of your faith (meaning here one’s faith in Christ as Savior and being faithful to Him thereafter – but could also apply in a way that our personal metal is proven in a growing way) produces patience (i.e., endurance, perseverance, steadfastness, fortitude, strength). 4 But let patience (whatever is causing you to exercise patience) have its perfect work (its FULL effect/impact! Move over and make room for it to be an accepted part of your present life; don’t try to push it away), that you may (as your trial ages) be perfect and complete, lacking nothing (that you may max out your full potential in becoming all you can be).”
It’s been several years since I completed the AT now. As I look back on it I do so from many perspectives. For example, the most beautiful places, the best town food, the people I met, my scariest moments, the solitude I enjoyed, the places I camped, how I changed up my resupply or gear, the hostels and shuttles, the trail magic, etc. Every area of reflection has and continues to have a measure of impact on my life.
When I reflect now on those times I most wanted to quit, those times when it was anything but fun, I view them from the perspective of amazement. Those times eventually revealed a level of endurance, perseverance, steadfastness, fortitude, strength that I didn’t know I could achieve. This, and other experiences like it, have catapulted me beyond a lot life’s challenges that would have previously held me back becoming more than I was.
So, by allowing these challenging AT experiences to have their perfect work, and other experiences like them, I have been inspired to attempt greater things than I would have otherwise even considered.
Now I must confess, I still don’t enjoy slogging through days and especially weeks of constant rain. But I am better at moving over in order to make room for them to be an accepted part of my adventures. I just know that the joy will come down the road this time, after the experience ages awhile.
So it is with every experience in life. God can use anything and everything in our life to make us like our Savior Jesus Christ. We just have to move over and give Him some space to do so.
Acts 2:28 – You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’
When our present, uncontrollable conditions steal the joy from what we otherwise get a lot of fulfilment from, we must go on the offensive. We have to find a way to place our concentration on something other than what we are feeling at the moment. Tapping into the resource God has provided us in James 1:2-4 is one way. We can seek to turn our concentration from the now to regarding the positive impact God means for it to have in our life down the road if we allow it time to do so.
To do this, maybe we could write on one trekking pole (or something else we carry with us), “Moving from feelings, to regarding my future.” On the other trekking pole, we could write, “Loving my feelings, living in the moment.” Then we can put the pole that depicts whatever is the case in our right hand to remind us. Or we could just write, “Present” on one and “Future” on the other. When we need to regard our future, we would do well to mentally move to the side some to make room for our conditions to be an accepted part of our present life.
Faith Aids 