Hiking

I used to hate hiking. My dad always loved to hike, and he would try to take us with him. I would always fight hard not to go. I had many excuses - I needed to do homework, I had to study just in case there was a pop quiz (you never know when those would happen), I had to practise piano, I had extreme allergic reactions to moquito bites & there were tons of mosquitos on hiking trails, I had to catch up on watching my HK TV dramas... the list goes on. But I got dragged along anyways. In my opinion, there was no purpose to hiking. We start at one point, hike a big circle, and end up at the very same place. Most of the scenery is trees, rocks, and dirt – how boring. There was no challenge, no climbing or jumping… just plain uphill walking. And after we’re finished I’m all tired and I didn’t achieve anything. What a waste of time and energy.

But things change.

In the past year, I’ve slowly grown to enjoy hiking. It’s not that hiking somehow morphed into a super-enjoyable activity. It’s me that has changed.

Climbing up a mountain tires me out. It takes so much effort to keep going when I’m out of breath. When my body shouts at me, saying it needs to stop and take a rest (this happens about every 10 seconds), it takes determination to continue. When I do stop to rest and decide to continue, my body whispers, “just another minute, please… you need it”. There’s a certain strength that is needed to make my unhappy body start climbing again. Mind over body.

Hiking reminds me of how Paul says that living life for God is like running a race. Not a short sprint, but more like a marathon. There is a goal, a prize that we run to win. And it is no easy race. It takes all we have to persevere and keep going.

There will be times in my life when I will be so tired – tired of my marriage, tired of my family, of my church, of my career, even of God. I will want to quit. I will want to stop. I will want to give up. Everything in my body and my life will shout out that I can’t go on.

At those times it takes perseverance and determination to continue. If I want to win the race that I am running, I must go on. I cannot quit. I cannot give up. When I hike, I am training myself in perseverance. I am preparing myself to run the race. I am building skills need to win the prize. I remind myself that this is what it feels like to be so tired, and this is what it feels like to keep going. This is what it feels like not to give up, but keep going even when the end is not in sight.

That is why I love hiking.

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”
~1 Corinthians 9:24-25~