Welcome to Walk the Trail!

Hey! I'm glad you came to check out my blog. "Walk the Trail" is an expression of who I am, the things and people that are important to me, and my thoughts on life, love, the world, philosophy, my wife and kids and whatever else comes to mind.

One of my greatest hobbies is hiking. I love the pace and simplicity of hiking. I love getting close to God's creation, smelling the damp, earthy smell of the woods, listening to birds singing, cooling my feet in a mountain stream, eating blackberries, seeing trees and flowers and mountains and sunsets. I love seeing deer in a field and ducks on a pond and a lizard on a rock. I love getting away from the highways to the roads less traveled to see things that most people never get to see. I love taking my kids with me, and challenging them to do things they think are impossible like climbing rocks and jumping streams and going one mile farther. I love stopping to eat a granola bar and drink some water and thinking, "This is the best food I have ever had!" I even love the aching back and blistered feet. So, walk the trail is some about hiking and other adventures in the great outdoors.

But it is more than that. It is really about how all of life is about walking the trail. So much of what is valuable in hiking is also what is valuable in life.

You see, in hiking, the goal is really the journey itself. It's not so much about getting to the end, making it back to your car and logging so many miles in so much time. The important thing is finding joy in the journey. When I am walking the trail, I am always excited about what I am going to discover around the next corner, what is over the next hill, what new view of the landscape will I see as I come to the next crest.

Some people think that the Christian faith is solely focused on heaven, and some people certainly give you that idea. You know, becoming a Christian is all about making sure you are going to heaven when you die, and living the Christian life is really about longing to get to heaven. But that is not it at all. Jesus wants to impact the way we live life here and now.

As Rob Bell so beautifully puts it in his book Velvet Elvis, "Jesus' desire for his followers is that they live in such a way that they bring heaven to earth." It's not just about getting from earth to heaven, but about bringing heaven to earth in our daily lives. The joy is in the journey. It's in making an impact in the lives of other people. It's in trying to transform the world and make it a better place. It's in seeing God in every step in life, every bend in the trail, every person you encounter. It's not just about getting to the end of the road. It's about enjoying wherever the road may take you.

Hiking is also about following a trail that is laid out before you, keeping your eyes open for the blazes that mark the course, and responding to the unexpected turns, dips, and challenges you find on the trail. That is what the life of following Jesus Christ is like. He is the pioneer (Heb. 12:1), the trailblazer who has gone before us and marked out the trail for us to follow. That trail will often lead us to new and unexpected places. To effectively follow Jesus, you have to follow the course he has laid out for you, and be ready to respond to the new challenges on the course. I firmly believe that this is what the church must continually do as we move into new territory, new cultures, and new horizons. We go wherever the trail takes us, changing, responding, adapting, yet always following. There are some things that are fixed along the way, like the good news of hope and forgiveness and peace and meaning found in Jesus Christ. But there is also much that must change as we face new parts of the trail.

Finally, one of the most important lessons about life I learned from hiking. I love hiking so much because I get to see some incredibly beautiful things that many people don't get to see because they never leave the safety of the road. So here's the lesson: Some of the most beautiful places on earth, most people never see because the road is too difficult.

It's true in hiking, and it's true in life. The most beautiful places in life, in your marriage, in your family, in your relationships with other people, in living out your purpose in life, making a difference in the world, being a hero to the people that matter to you, the most beautiful places in life, most people never see because the road to get there is too tough.

You will never experience the most beautiful places in your life if you take the easy route. The most beautiful things in your life will come when you hang on when you were about to give up. The most beautiful times in your marriage will come when you stay when you wanted to walk away. The most beautiful times in your relationships with other people will come when you walk through heartache and tough times together. The most beautiful places in your personal life will come after you were ready to give up. The mountain tops are only reached by struggling through the valleys.

Walk the trail is about all of that. It's about my journey walking the trail that God has set before me. I invite you to come along with me for the journey.

The Road goes ever on and on/Down from the door where it began./Now far ahead the Road has gone,/And I must follow, if I can,/Pursuing it with weary feet,/Until it joins some larger way,/Where many paths and errands meet./And whither then? I cannot say.