Take A Hike!

Carp's Daily Tidbits

"Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." Psalm 103:2

Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Today's Title: Take A Hike!

Today's Scripture: Genesis 13:17-18

One of the most difficult merit badges I earned in the Boy Scouts was the hiking merit badge.  The requirements were very simple; all I had to do was walk. It seemed easy enough until I read the requirements a little more closely.  In order to earn the merit badge, I had to walk a total of seventy miles during the course of six individual hikes.  Five of the hikes were to be ten miles each with the sixth one covering a total of twenty continuous miles.  Each hike was to be completed in a single day, even the twenty-miler.

My best friend, David Bame, decided to join me on the twenty-mile hike.  He spent the night with me and we “camped out” in my basement.  We wanted to get an early start the next morning because we knew the day would be long.  So, just after sunrise, we set out, we hit the trail, we made tracks, (I know I’m being melodramatic here, just bear with me) and we headed for Hardee’s (a fast-food restaurant) where we bought breakfast.  Hey, we were going to “rough it” in style and steak biscuits were just the thing we needed to start our “little adventure.”

The remainder of the day was spent covering those twenty miles. My dad had driven the trail the evening before to make sure it was in good shape with no hidden surprises waiting on us.  Throughout the day, both my parents and David’s checked on us.  They brought us something to drink, something to snack on, and just made sure we were holding up all right.  David and I enjoyed the hike and we never worried about getting lost.  Everywhere we walked was home turf, even though we walked in a twenty-mile circle.  Everything we needed was within sight and had there been any reason we required help, all we had to do was make a quick call and the cavalry would appear just over the horizon.

In some respects, mine and David’s hike bears a striking resemblance to one taken by a man several thousand years ago. His story is recorded in the book of Genesis and he is known as a man of great faith.  The Bible refers to him as “the friend of God,” but we know him best as Abraham.

When he was seventy-five years old, God promised Abraham he would have a son and that his descendants would be as numerous as the sand on the seashore.  God called him to leave his home, family, and friends and to take up residence in a land He would show him.  So Abraham set out, hit the trail, made tracks, (you get the idea) and hiked to the place God had chosen for him.  Once there, God spoke again to Abraham and told him to walk through the land and to view it. Essentially, God told him to take a hike: “Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you." So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD .” (Genesis 13:17-18)

There are two specific things we must learn from this passage of scripture.  First, Abraham was told to walk throughout the land, to explore its breadth and its length.  That’s a tall order!  Wherever Abraham walked, he was on home turf.  He could not out walk God’s provision.  No matter where he went, no matter how far he hiked, no matter which direction he chose, God’s provision was all around him.  Abraham simply could not get away from God’s promise—he lived in it.  This is exactly what we are called to do.  So many times we want to get ahead of God or we are reluctant to follow Him.  That’s where we miss out.  God did not call Abraham to leave his home just to abandon him. God called Abraham away and to Himself so Abraham would learn what it meant to depend solely on God.  What an opportunity God gave him; what a wonderful life Abraham had, walking hand-in-hand with God!

The second thing we must see here is Abraham’s response to God’s provision.  He built an altar.  If you read the story of Abraham carefully, you will see that he built altars everywhere he went and he built them to mark the special events of his walk with God.  This aspect of our walk with God is sorely missing today.  We have forgotten how to build altars and we have neglected thanking and praising God for all of the wonderful blessings He gives us daily.  Like Abraham, we can never out walk God’s provision; but if we don’t walk in faith, we will never experience the life God intends for us and the life He so desperately wants us to have.

At the end of the day, David and I returned home, tired, sore, and hungry.  However, we weren't the same boys that left home earlier that morning.  The walk had changed us!  We started our journey with a steak biscuit and ended with a real meal, not out of a bag, not something that came pre-cooked, but straight from our families’ kitchens.  That meal tasted so much better because we had been walking all day, pouring ourselves wholeheartedly into the task at hand.

It is the same with our Heavenly Father.  When He tells us to “take a hike” it is always to a place so much better than where we started.  When we put our complete trust in Him, when we take Him solely at His word, and when we go where He bids us follow, then our lives are forever changed.  We are not the same people, we don’t live the same lives, and the spiritual food He provides always surpasses anything the world has to offer. That’s just the way God is!  Are you taking a hike today?