Day 1 - Week 91 - The last stretch is always the longest, isn't it?

Here we are...the last 10 weeks of our 100 week journey!  (Even though I fully realize that these have not been consecutive weeks these past months...but nevertheless, 100 weeks of travel!)

Remember the Appalachian Trail?  We've compared our Biblical journey to the trek made along the eastern United States by determined hikers.  Well, the southern trail head of the Appalachian Trail is in southern Georgia...and where would we find ourselves today?  We would be approximately 80 miles into the last state of the journey...Maine.  Have you ever been there?  What a beautiful place!  Picturesque coast lands, lighthouses, and inland lakes and mountains.

But along the Appalachian Trail in southern Maine, hikers must pass through the Mahoosuc Notch. According to Wikipedia, 

"The notch is a deep gap in the Mahoosuc Range of western Maine, traversed by the Appalachian Trail.  The boulders on this mile-long section of trail present obstacles that must be climbed over and sometimes under, creating a unique hiking experience.  There are occasional ten-foot drops, and places where packs must be removed to squeeze beneath a boulder.  Many thru-hikers call this stretch one of the slowest on the 2,179-mile trail.  This so-called "killer mile" or the "Toughest Mile" is a very tough section that can cause even the most experienced hikers to slow down."  

It is really amazing that I decided tonight to pick back up on the Appalachian Trail analogy, and then that I was pulled into reading about the Mahoosuc Notch (of which I had never heard before!).  I really couldn't believe it when I read the description of this section of the trail.  It describes almost perfectly the very same section of trail that I have been covering in my spiritual trek over the past few miles.  In my on-going "hike" of faith, this most recent section has proved to be particularly tough.  There have been obstacles that have either had to be climbed over or crawled under, creating a most "unique hiking experience!"  This hike has been unlike any other for me.  There have been "occasional ten-foot drops", days that the bottom just seemed to fall out from under me...days full of anxiety, worries, mind-wrestling.  Some days, I just had to take the pack off my back and squeeze through!  And, as you have obviously noticed, this section has forced me to slow down...even though I felt that I was a fairly experienced "faith hiker."  

What encourages me about reading this description is that the hikers continue!  They get through the Notch, and once through I have no doubt that they have a fairly significant feeling of accomplishment.  Just as we, as God's children, as the Shepherd's lambs, do when we come through the trials of faith, hanging on, squeezing through the notch, and "doing it!"  Doesn't the expression on this hiker's face convey that spirit of achievement?

I have no doubt that God allowed me to see this description tonight as encouragement to keep up the hike...to move forward...not to let this "Toughest Mile" keep me from seeing the beauty ahead.  

So, the backpack is back on --- the hike continues.  Thanks for taking this tough mile slow with me, but now let's pick up the pace and move forward and complete the journey set before us!  

We've got some beautiful places yet to see!