Praying for Good Hiking
I really like long walks. To the grocery store is fine and is pretty counter-cultural here in Fort Worth, TX, but I’m talking about multi-hour, multi-day walks. I’ve walked along the Camino de Santiago (a pilgrimage that culminates in northwestern Spain) and am preparing to walk the Canterbury Trail next month.
My best friend and I were talking the other day about how great it would be to walk the Appalachian Trail over the course of years. This got me thinking about a famous warning sign right before what is called The Hundred Mile Wilderness, a particularly isolated and challenging stretch of the almost 2,200 mile hike. The verbiage sounds a lot like some of the stuff we say to candidates before they launch to the field!
I then came on a brief article called “5 Dangers that Could Kill You Hiking the 100 Mile Wilderness,” and I thought it could serve as a fun (if potentially morbid) guide for praying for workers this month.
Drowning in a River: Pray that workers would be wise about what they carry with them into swirling currents. Pray for sure footing. Pray also that they would feel God’s presence, in line with what God said in Isaiah 43, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.”
Lightning Strike: Sometimes the unexpected happens. Pray that workers around the world would be protected from the hazards they don’t see coming. Pray that our Father would not allow anything to crash in on them that they cannot survive. Pray that workers would be wise about where they stand in a storm.
Falling: Our enemy loves to see cross-cultural leaders stumble. Pray that workers worldwide would be agile when the enemy (or they themselves) try to trip them up. Pray that when they do stumble, they will learn from what happened and rely on God and His servants to pick them back up.
Exposure: In particularly rough seasons, it can feel like everything is out to get you, even the environment! Pray for workers to be wise about self-care, about taking appropriate precautions to stay healthy. In particular, becoming dry on the inside can kill you; pray that workers would never wander far from the Living Water.
Drowning in the Swamp: Sometimes ground that looks solid is anything but. Pray for cross-cultural workers to discern quickly where the safe footing is. Pray for them to be wise enough to stay on the paths marked out for them, and for quick returns when they don’t.
One last thing – I love how, in the midst of all those terrifying things to attend to, the sign ends with, Good hiking! Pray also that workers would discover joy in the trail they have chosen to follow, that amid all the challenges, they would find that cross-cultural service is in fact good hiking!
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