{"id":10336,"date":"2024-03-12T08:08:51","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T13:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/?p=10336"},"modified":"2024-03-11T20:54:34","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T01:54:34","slug":"march-17-2024-were-going-on-an-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/march-17-2024-were-going-on-an-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"March 17, 2024–We’re Going On An Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kate Van Valkenburg, Grand Rapids MI<\/b><\/p>\n

Warm-up Question<\/b><\/h2>\n

Have you ever taken a difficult journey, like walk, hike, or roll through difficult terrain? What was that like for you?<\/span><\/p>\n

Into the Unknown<\/b><\/h2>\n

My friend, Alyssa, told me we must go on an adventure, so I followed her to the Superior Hiking Trail in Northern Minnesota. I had no idea what to expect, but I trusted her. I put my backpack on, filled with a tent, snacks, sleeping bag, first aid kit, and two Nalgene water bottles. It takes 2-4 weeks to thru-hike this trail, but we were only going to hike in and out. I was planning for two days, so I thought one bottle for each day would suffice. Boy, was I wrong.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I made a couple of mistakes on this trip. I didn\u2019t train for the elevation changes, nor did I practice hiking with my backpack on. Really, I was a safety officer\u2019s worst nightmare. However, the biggest mistake we made was beginning our journey at 4 PM. We needed to reach our tenting area by sundown, which was only about 4.5 miles, but starting at that time meant we had only 4.5 hours of daylight. Our naive thought was, \u201cA mile an hour? That\u2019s totally doable.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At about a mile in, we came to a giant hill. Alyssa told me her plan of attack. Trusting in her confidence, we made it over the hill, but a five-minute rest was necessary. We shared a snack together. I looked at my watch and realized we had to keep going or there was no way we\u2019d reach the tenting area before sundown. Alyssa turned to me and said, \u201cIt\u2019s going to be okay. I won\u2019t let anything happen to us.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I was drinking a lot of water because it was the middle of August and one of the hottest days that summer. As I look back now, I wonder why we thought it was a great time for a hiking trip, but oh well. I needed a fruitful adventure; an adventure that would bring renewal and joy. We kept going, but then I saw it. The inevitable Mt. Trudee and its 1,500 ft of elevation. My heart was pounding in my chest. I didn\u2019t see this coming. I didn\u2019t know it would be this hard; how defeated it would make me feel. I had no idea how we were going to make it and I was scared.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Maybe you haven\u2019t been in this exact scenario, but how often does life throw us into situations where we have absolutely no idea how it\u2019s going to turn out? When we turn on the news, it\u2019s hard to trust that everything will be okay. We can all probably connect with this fear of the unknown: a fear where we can do nothing but fall to our knees and pray.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s often when God shows up, or when we finally realize God has been there all along. After surviving the shaky trek over Mt. Trudee, Alyssa and I reached our goal just as the little sliver of sun dropped behind the terrain. Almost in tears as my body hurt so badly, we heard a faint guitar in the distance followed by singing, \u201cLord prepare me to be a sanctuary.\u201d Between a few trees, there was a group of women from Wheaton College sitting around a fire. They had already been hiking for six days, so they had intense camping supplies and let us use their water filters to fill our bottles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I was awestruck by our luck as we fell asleep that night listening to their songs sung around the fire. This could have been so much worse. I was out of water, exhausted, unsure where I was, and suddenly we had everything we needed. Then, while lying in our tent, Alyssa whispered to me, \u201cI told you we\u2019d be okay. I wouldn\u2019t let anything happen to us.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Discussion Questions<\/b><\/h2>\n