Every time I go camping I think about the camping scene from Star Trek V. I really should watch that movie again since I don’t remember much about it and I really should find another camping scene in sci-fi (if you can think of one please share it with me).
Alycia and I did go camping this past weekend in our local mountains. It was a wonderful time to get away, to sit beneath the stars and to spend some time surrounded by God’s natural creation. As I’ve written about before, I didn’t grow up camping but married into the camping lifestyle. I’m still more comfortable in a hotel but I’m getting more used to tents and cooking outdoors.
While camping, Alycia and I went on a really long hike. Alycia enjoys hiking because she connects with God by experiencing him through nature. I enjoy hiking because it’s good exercise and my competitive nature wants to finish as quickly as possible. The last 45 minutes of our two and a half hour hike were extremely difficult. Most of those 45 minutes were spent going uphill, often at a very steep incline.
When we reached the steepest portions of the hike I put my head down and just kept going. My goal in starting a hike is to finish it as quickly as possible so I didn’t want to stop. I didn’t want to take a break, I didn’t want to drink any water and I didn’t want to rest my legs. I just wanted to push through and make it to the top, even though stopping and resting would have been better for me.
There was no reason that I shouldn’t have stopped and rested. Mutant hill people weren’t chasing us and we didn’t have anywhere to be. There’s just this part in me, and maybe you have it too, where I wanted to keep going because there would be plenty of time to rest once we reached the top of the hill. I didn’t need to rest on the hike because I would be able to rest when we finished, when the hike was all over.
That mindset doesn’t get us into too much trouble when hiking because, eventually, the hike will be over. Eventually we’ll reach the top, eventually we’ll hit the end of the trail and eventually we’ll get to the end. In life, though, the mindset of putting our head down and pressing through to the end can get us in a lot of trouble. While there’s always an end to a hiking trail, there’s never really an end to our lives, other than death. There will always be one more project, one more task or one more to do list. In life, if we put our heads down and keep pushing through without ever taking a break, we’ll eventually break down from the stress and pressure.
There will always be uphill parts of our lives. We need to find time to rest and relax, especially when we’re going uphill. Even the senior staff of the Enterprise needed time off every once in a while.
What mindset do you have when facing the uphill parts of life?
Well said. But once rested, God expects us to move on to new heights in our walk with Him.