The Longest Trail

[HKHaugan]

The Longest Trail

When I worked in New Hampshire one of my favorite hikes was on the Lion's Head Trail up the side of Mt. Washington. It was strenuous but the reward was not only making a successful climb but also the view from the top. What I came to learn was the appreciation of the trail itself with its beginning through beautiful woods, then emerging at the timberline and crisscrossing the boulders to reach the summit. Even though the trail remains the same the weather changes, causing you to be cautious in case of fog, slipperiness due to icing or fallen branches here and there. There's a sign at the entry to the trail warning about the drastic weather changes that can occur regardless of the time of year. I started one day when it was about 80 degrees and ended up at the top where it was 28 degrees. That trail got me to thinking about our human nature and the trails it takes.

If you really think about it the longest trail is the one between hearts. We can take a plane and in one day be in Asia. We can go by car and reach the West Coast in a comfortable five days. We can ‘Skype’ on the computer and in a matter of seconds see and communicate with people around the globe. Physical distance is no longer a barrier. But there is a distance that seems to be getting longer, more challenging and time consuming, the distance between hearts.

Then too, relational distance is traveled in complete darkness. Attitudes, expectations, disappointments, disillusionments, first impressions, prejudices, worries, weaknesses, are all hills and valleys, walls and barriers that block the long journey to the heart of another. Darkness, that is, not knowing what is in the mind and heart of another person, is traversed alone and cautiously.

Add to this the increasing way technology is used to ward off the outside world. People run around with earplugs listening to whatever. Video games consume the present consciousness of millions. We come home, shut the garage door, turn on the TV or the computer and we are lost in the mindless fare presented. Rather than forwarding our relational experience, technology becomes its retardant. Hearts are increasingly further and further apart. It has affected education to the degree that young people have to be taught in sound and scene bites or as they are now called, ‘bytes.’

All of this is part of the darkness that surrounds the relational heart. Technology has intensified the darkness and the relational distance it creates by bringing every war, every conflict, every element of the basest part of human nature right into our living room. No individual can handle the pressure of processing it all. That is why so many resort to escape in any way they can. It is not only our heart but the hearts of those who don’t have a Savior.

It is those consumed hearts and ours Jesus came to free. He alone knows the heart. He alone has the keys to the heart and He alone can bring them out of the present darkness. “The people who are now living in darkness will see a great light. They are now living in a very dark land. But a light will shine on them." —(Isaiah 9:1,2)” Fulfilling that prophecy Jesus proclaimed, “I am the light of the world.” He removes the distance by being the light in the darkness.

Wherever you happen to be today think of the trail that you can make toward the heart of someone you run into. It may have obstacles, that frozen expression, you know, like a deer caught in the headlights. It could be that other look, 'Oh no, another religious nut." regardless there is another light on the spiritual trail for which that heart is waiting, "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom then shall I fear (Psalm 27:1)?

He is the torch that lights the hearts of those caught in the caves into which they have fled. We are the ones carrying that torch. Jesus said about His disciples and therefore us, “You are the light of the world.” The distance to the heart of another decreases when we share the Light we have been given. Matthew 5:16 (KJV) “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”