Part of my writing this post is to honor my holistic approach to blogging about my hike. For me, there is a spiritual aspect to hiking, whatever that spiritual meaning may be for each hiker.
The spiritual component for me is my faith in God. It is the essence of who I am and one of my main “reasons” for hiking the AT. I want to experience God in new ways. What better way to do that than to spend a lot of time in nature?
Experience God
In biblical times, like now, people often went out into nature to encounter God. There is something about focusing on basic needs that makes trusting Him more evident.
I have had multiple occasions where I have leaned on God to provide for me or show up on my behalf. One of those moments is when I thought I had lost my wallet.
My hiking partner at the time and I were prepared to backtrack an 18.4 mile day just to find it. The thing is that I didn’t feel panic. I had prayed to God and knew He would appear. I trusted that He knew what it meant to lose my wallet and that He would provide me with whatever He saw fit. So, I had faith that whatever happened, He would turn out for good.
I ended up finding my wallet. I was wrapped in my sleeping bag! And I found it before we turned back: another great praise to God.
The lost wallet situation is just one example of how God provides. I cannot fully explain the level of peace He continues to give me.
Faith practices in the OT
I readily admit that my spiritual discipline practices lack luster in my daily life. But out here? They have been much better which makes me feel much closer to God.
I have been very lucky to have attended a few religious services while on the road. I didn’t think I’d be able to make that work, but what a privilege! The other two things I’ve been doing the most here are praying and reading my Bible. It makes a big difference. Someone told me to leave my compact Bible out of my backpack, but it was worth its weight in gold. You can’t pay me enough to get it out of my backpack.
As I mentioned in other blog posts, I have been reading key passages from the Psalms, such as Psalm 104, which talks about God being the God of creation. Being in nature and reading about God’s creation of all things is a strong reminder that everything around me was created by Him. Which then leads me to praise Him and talk to Him more.
Final thoughts
I certainly feel more intimate with God. Consequently, He is teaching me a lot about myself. I’ll talk more about that in future blog posts. It’s all part of the process of becoming more like Him.
One thing He keeps telling me is “be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).” If you know me, you know I’m not very good with the «still» part of that phrase. I am on a long journey of learning how to rest in general, but more importantly, how to rest in God. I trust Him to patiently teach me as I continue my journey.
Overall, there is one word to describe how I have felt spiritually: Grateful.
(On this, check out the song Gratitude by Brandon Lake.)
And so we continue the adventure….
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