On the Trail

Our grandson and his wife, Spencer and Jenny Brown, came to us a few weeks ago and gave us a startling announcement. They informed us that they had decided to walk the Appalachian Trail. They said that they were not planning to start seminary training until January and they had about six months where they could do something that they would not be able to do again during their lives.

It did not take long for this dream to come to fruition and today or tomorrow they will go to Mt. Katahdin and start a journey that will bring them home some time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. They left here last week and gave every appearance of being ready for the journey. Their pack was ready. Their supply route was prepared. They had read everything they could gather to be prepared mentally for the journey.

There is something impressive about a young couple having a dream that is different than most. It is encouraging to see them pursue that dream and try to make its accomplishment a reality. They could wear out and stop before they leave the state of Maine, but they would have tried. There are any number of reasons they could stop, but they would know that they had tried. The great expectation is that they will not wear out and they will not stop, but they will come down the last mountain in Georgia and come home with a glow on their faces that will demonstrate a sense of accomplishment for them.

They have a much greater goal in life and that is that they are planning to serve God in some capacity once they have finished their graduate training. Walking the trail pales in comparison to accomplishing what God wants in their lives. That walk is a great goal. Walking with God is a goal that supersedes anything else that we can dream. I will try to update their progress along the way.