August Long Weekend

This past weekend was the Civic Holiday in Canada. Basically an excuse to have a day off of work, as far as I can understand it! We were invited by some people from church to join them in camping in Kananaskis Provincial Park. I had been through Kananaskis a few weeks before on our way home from Banff, as well as in 1996 with the Cadets camping there. It is truly a beautiful place to be!

On Saturday a group of us went on a long hike. It was 4.5 km's long, which, doesnt sound that bad. Until most of it is up the mountain. As I have been thinking about the hike it made me think of a saying we had to say during basketball in High School. It is a saying I guess made famous by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Coach John Wooden probably made use of it as well. But our coach made us say it time and time again: "Life is a journey, not a destination." On our hike, we had a destination in mind. We wanted to get to the lakes. But we first had to climb this mountain and go over the peak to get to the lakes. Along the way it was a challenge. One of the guys along the way was a great encourager. Affectionately known as T-Roy he encouraged us along the way. (He is by the way an amazing speed walker! Cant wait for the video to hit facebook...)

Thinking about encouragement along the way, it made me think of our life's journey. Often times along the way we need people to encourage us in our walk. In my own life there have been a lot of people that I can think of that have encouraged me. I think we dont realize how important it is to encourage one another, especially if you are going through a challenging time. Think about this and try to encourage each other on our journey of life together.