Tonight I decided to take an impromptu hike with my dogs at the state park.  I had a long, stressful day and was ready to just be outside, get some fresh air and get the pups out of the house.  It was kind of a surprising decision though because 1) I was really tired and had a lot of work to catch up on and 2) I am still recovering from adrenal fatigue so I can’t really handle a lot of activity yet.  But since it was already close to 7 p.m., I figured we could just take a short walk for about 30 mins or so and be back before dark.

So we hopped in the car, drove to the park and got there right around 7.  I’ve hiked at this park before but it’s been a few years since I’ve been there and they’ve changed things around a bit since they built a whole new Visitor’s Center and parking lot.  When we got out of the car though and started walking to the edge of the lot, there was a sign right there for a path that said “easy” for the difficulty level.  Since that was what I wanted, I thought “that’ll work” and started down the path with the pups, my cell phone and a bottle of water.

At first, we crossed paths with a few bicyclists traveling in the opposite direction and could occasionally hear the voices of other hikers/bikers nearby in the woods.  But soon, things quieted down and it was just me and the pups.  The scenery was beautiful with plenty of greenery, huge tree trunks, ivy and the occasional squirrel or bird.  I was enjoying the peace, the calm, the solidarity and the exhilaration of being out of the house!

But as time went on and the path just continued to wind and wind with no end in sight, I started to panic a little.  Exactly how long was this trail anyway?  I realized I didn’t know and maybe “easy” referred more to the terrain itself and not the distance of the path.  I had been walking for awhile and my body was starting to get fatigued.  Again, this was more than I have attempted in a LONG time.  I hadn’t eaten anything substantial before I left either (just munched on some almonds) because I thought it would be a quick trip, but now I could feel my blood sugar starting to get low too.  Not to mention, I had left the dog’s water bottle in the car and they were starting to pant heavily.

So as we kept going and going and it began to get darker, I started to pray quietly and asked God to give my body the strength to keep going and to get me and the dogs out of there safely (and preferably quickly!).  But as I found myself in this unexpected situation, I had a bit of a revelation.

Everything about the hike I was on was a metaphor for life and the lessons we learn along the way.

First, what you think will be the “easy way” does not always turn out that way.  Sometimes you end up taking a path that takes a lot longer than you expected.  And when that happens, just like on the trail… the best thing you can do is pray for God’s help and persevere until you reach the end.

Along the path, I went through areas of brightness where the sun shined down on the greenery below and areas of darkness where the tree tops formed a dark canopy and turned the world around me into almost nighttime.  But like the trials and dark storms we go through in life, if you keep going and push forward, you will eventually emerge from the darkness into the light again.

The little hurts along the hike like a bug bite or a stubbed toe reminded me of the hurts we experience along our life’s journey.  And the twists and turns of the path mirrored the unexpected turns life can take.  In both cases, you often can’t see where the road leads in front of you.  Instead, you have to depend on God to continue to guide you and trust that the road will keep going around the bend.

But even though I did go through a certain amount of panic along the path as the sky started to turn darker, my legs got more tired and my blood sugar continued to drop, I did the same thing that I (and many other people) do in the larger scope of life too.  I pretended to others (in this case, my dogs) that everything was okay!

I continued to encourage the pups, especially the one who was lagging behind with her tongue to the ground, in a sing-songy voice about how we’d be at the end of the path soon and they’d get a big bowl of water when we got there.  As I did this for the third or fourth time, it dawned on me how often I do that in real life too… put on a smiley face or a sing-songy voice when inside I’m actually panicking.

But once we FINALLY neared the end of the path and I could see the parking lot in the distance, I thanked God for carrying us through to the end.  Except that it wasn’t really the end… the path that I was on was called the “Hawk Loop” and it looped around right back to the entrance where we had begun at the edge of the parking lot.

Just like life.  Just when you think you’ve finally reached the end of a struggle or come back into the light after a storm, life will loop right back around and start you on another path with new twists and turns, and new highs and lows.

But you can rest assured that no matter what you may encounter along the hike of life, God is always right there walking beside you.