Hiking Through

I just finished reading Hiking Through by Paul Stutzman.  He writes of his 2,176 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.  After losing his wife to cancer, Paul quits his restaurant job and hits the trail even though he is in his mid-fifties (turns out there were lots folks in their fifties and sixties on the trail doing through-hikes).  This amazing story of his journey to find peace and comfort after losing his wife and his

The AT in North Georgia (April 2012)

 wrestling with God along the way is entertaining, challenging, thought-provoking, and inspiring.

Here are just a few quotes from the book....

From someone he met along the trail... When we stopped going to church and started being the church, something wonderful happened.

Memories of our lost ones will always be with us, but the acute, overwhelming anguish will lesson at some point.  We do find life on the other side of grief.  I left the shackles of my grief in a puddle of tears on top of Eph's Mountain three weeks before.

The beauty of the Trail!!

Many folks remain stuck in grief because they can't comprehend why God would take their loved ones. We get angry with God and question why He would subject us to such terrible loss.  But if it were up to us, when would we ever allow God to take our son or daughter or spouse?  The answer, of course, is that we would never choose it.  We don't won't to die, and we don't won't our loved ones to die.

Each of us has a small slice of measured time, inserted here between eternity past and a never-ending hereafter.  From the moment of your birth, death becomes inevitable.  Your little slice of time is so fleeting.  Whether you live on this planet ten years or eighty is insignificant to God.  What is significant is your choice of paths that will lead you to the end of your time here.

One of the places the AT crosses the Richard Russell Highway in North Georgia

"Someday never comes."  Or so the saying goes.  Endless waiting for someday can be frustrating, but the somedays of dreams can actually come to pass.  Set goals and hike confidently toward them, one step at a time, and you will fill your life with many realized somedays.