A Walk In Postmodernism's Woods

A Walk in the Woods is a book by Bill Bryson. Several years ago he decided he wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail (AT) is a hiking trail that stretches over 2100 miles from Georgia to Maine, or from Maine to Georgia depending on which way you walk. They started their hike in Georgia, and after 6 weeks on the trail they were in a Park Service Visitors center when they saw a map of the whole trail. They realized that day that they were not going to be able to ever hike the whole trail. So they gave up their goal, split up, and decided to meet in August in Maine to finish the trail.

After a few days in Maine they decided that they had hiked enough. So they quit completely. But as they talked one of them tried to convince the other that they had walked the AT. After all, they had hiked on both ends, and some places in the middle. They had suffered and worked hard, so even though technically they had not hiked the whole trail, they decided that they had.

This is just another example of our culture. Here we believe that if we feel like we hiked the trail, then we are hikers.

I wonder how that transforms into our spiritual lives. Just because we feel like we are spiritual, without practicing the spiritual disciplines we are not. And it doesn’t matter how we feel.

Paul said he goes into strict training to be spiritual.

1 Corinthians 9:25-27 (NIV)
25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.
27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

When you go into strict training, you practice spiritual disciplines. In Timothy he invites us to train to be godly.

1 Timothy 4:7-8 (NIV)
7 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.
8 For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.


Don’t think you are a spiritual person because you want to be, or because you feel like you are. Train yourself to be Godly.