The Counter-Balance

Yesterday I wrote about keeping our cadence as we walk or hike and more specifically as we walk with the Lord.  I mentioned how sometimes our feet can hit a rock or a root and send us struggling for balance.

Appalachian Trail North Carolina

I was thinking last night of the times this has happened on the trail as we hike.  There are an abundance of rocks and roots along the Appalachian Trail.  When you trip over one of these rocks or roots in the path, though, the twenty+ pound pack on our back acts as a counter-balance.  While we are indeed hurled down the path at a speed much faster than we intended, rarely does it result in us actually falling.  The weight seems to somehow keep us upright.  It is when we are walking on the the city sidewalks, without our packs, we are more likely to hit the ground. The burden of the packs tends to help keep us upright.  

Isn't this true in our spiritual lives as well?  When our hearts are burdened, when we have troubles or problems which are clearly beyond our ability to manage, we more easily turn to the One upon whom we should cast all our cares.  In those times the Lord seems not only present in our lives, but as David said, "a very present help in trouble." (Psalm 46:1.)


When hiking in the woods for several days at a time we 

Appalachian Trail  Georgia

must carry everything we need on our backs.  We cannot escape the pack.  In this life too, burdens will come and we have found no way of yet to escape them.

"Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward." 

Job 5:7 

What we have found is our troubles bring us even closer to the Lord as we depend upon Him.  Sometimes it is in His eternal purpose in Christ Jesus to remove the burden.  Sometimes He lightens the load.  Sometimes it is His purpose for us to walk the path with the load centered squarely on our backs and to depend upon His strengthening, His empowering, His guiding to see us safely along the way.

"And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: 

for My strength is made perfect in weakness. 

Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities,

 that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 

2 Corinthians 12:9

Appalachian Trail Tennessee