Today is officially Day 1 of my
Acadia National Park vacation. One of my
goals for this trip was to get in a lot of hiking. Trails are rated Easy, Moderate, Strenuous
and Ladder (which means there are portions of the trail where you have to cling
to climb iron ladders. Of course these are relative terms; one
man’s moderate is another man’s strenuous.
There is a Ranger-led hike
tomorrow that I would like to try, but it’s rated Strenuous, so I wasn’t sure I
could keep up. Because I’m somewhat
active, I figured I could handle Moderate, no matter what level of Moderate it
might be. It would just be a matter of
how well I felt after tackling a Moderate trail, whether I would try the
Strenuous hike tomorrow.
I was a responsible hiker. I carried not one, but two bottles of water
and trail mix. I had sunscreen, bug
spray, a hat. I wore good hiking boots
and packed extra socks. I even had a
cool compass/whistle thing (Mindy has a compass/whistle thing, but her’s is way
cooler). AND I purchased a trail map at
the visitors’ center, complete with a listing of all the trails, their level of
difficulty rating, distance, topography, etc.
I reviewed the
map and chose a Moderate trail – the Schiff Trail. And then I set off. This trail was pretty much nothing but
granite steps up the side of Dorr Mountain, the second highest mountain in the
park. It was definitely taxing and I had
to take numerous breaks. Since this wasn’t a loop trail, to get back to
my car I’d either have to connect with one of the other trails ahead or return
the way I’d come. Consulting my map, I
could see the shortest way back would be to take Emery Path, a Strenuous rated
trail. I had thought that if I did well
on the Moderate trail, I could try the Emery Path to see how strenuous
Strenuous was. Since I was having such
difficulty with this path, I was rethinking this plan.
There were a
number of times when I thought of turning back.
I wasn’t worn out…yet; but I knew I could find myself overly tired
before I turned around and it could be a problem getting myself all the way
back to my car.
Still, I
pressed on. I wanted to complete what I
started. Where would Jacob have been had
he given up when wrestling with God? He
would have missed out on God’s blessing.
What would have happened had Hannah quit praying for a child? Because she pressed on she was given
Samuel. I was going to finish this Moderate
hike. I would conquer…and then collapse
back in camp!
When I got to
the end of the Schiff trail, there was a way sign pointing to the Strenuous
Emery Path. There was also a sign
pointing back the way I had just come only it didn’t say Schiff Trail. It said Kurt Diedrich’s Climb, a Strenuous Trail.
Though I’d
wanted to try one of the more difficult trails, I had not planned on doing so
today. I’d walked in to it (literally)
unaware and not at my own timing. God
does things like that. He’s put me on a
difficult life trail, not one I’d have chosen for myself. If I had known when I started how difficult
it would be, I might have turned back long ago or never even started. But He knows the path He’s chosen for me and
He sent His Son, Jesus to walk the same paths before me, blazing trails and
leaving way signs along the way. In
fact, because of Jesus’ sacrifice, His willingness to live life as a man and
die a painful, sacrificial death, my omnipresent Father is there leading me –
beside still waters, through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and up steep
granite Strenuous Moderate mountain trails.
Tomorrow,
barring incredibly sore muscles, I plan on taking that Ranger-led Strenuous
hike. And I plan on continuing on the
life path my heavenly Father has chosen for me.
And on any future hikes this vacation, I will be carefully reading the
Trail maps!
