Randy Motz - The Walk: Reflections on Life & Faith from the Appalachian Trail

PRAISE for

The Walk Reflections onLife and Faith from the Appalachian Trail

fascinatingtrail experiences and theparallels with the Christian faith were very interesting andenjoyableI recommend The Walk - John Cook,www.AvidChristian.com

.excellent content skillfulpresentation engrossing, fluid in format, and wide-ranging interms of contentmasterful job of interweaving experiences andlessons encountered along the trail with issues of practicalspirituality. - Pastor L.D. Turner,http://lifebrook.wordpress.com

found myself writing in themarginsNative American quotes were evenly distributed and never somystical or spiritual that Christ was lost...added to thesimplicity of the profound lessons learnedI highly recommend itkeen insight into dealing with the rat-race we call lifewe can alllearn from their lessonsboth spiritual and physical -Pastor Terry Delaney, http://www.faithfulnews.com

One of the fun things about being a booklover and blogger is occasionally I'll get a chance to read aninspiring book that was completely off my radarI'm glad I took alook at this one...a warm conversational tone, always reflectingawe and wonder for God's creation, never condescendingkeeninsights on the Christian walk - Larry Baxter,http://stepuptothecall.blogspot.com

clear and concisefound myself readingwith a pen in one hand and my journal in the other

conversational feelcaptures the beautyand wonder of encountering God in what many would think an unlikelyplace, the wildernesspractical wisdom - DavidLongley, http://allwhowander.us

a very good book written by two verygood peoplewritten from the nitty-gritty of personal (andsometimes painful) real world experiencea masterful jobparallelsbetween trail life and real life spirituality are skillfullydrawn and easily understoodequally accessible both to those whomight consider themselves beginners on their spiritual journey andthose who have been journeying with Christ for many years. -Ken Jackson, Pastor of Spiritual Formation, CedarbrookCommunity Church, Clarksburg, MD

will make you laugh, cry, reflect onyour own mistakeshow you can better relate to a faith journeyawonderful book of how our own stories are a part of God's. -Pastor Gerrard Fess, Church of Christ, Hagerstown, MD

inspirational, yet easy to readfelt thedesire to read with a highlighterspeaks to the reader in such apersonal wayThis book is not limited to Christians. It helpsexplain how Christ's teaching can work for everyone. -Fiftysense Product Review Panel, www.Fiftysense.com CommonSense Ideas for Thriving After 50

uniquely informative and inspirationalamust have for those who seek spiritual insightYou will findtreasures in every chapter. - Craig and Suzy Miles -Founders, Appalachian Trail Servants, Inc. & Authors of,Seeker's Guide to the Spiritual Wilderness

an insightful bookinspires the readerby relating the authors footsteps to the challenges of our dailylives, and more specifically, to our walk of faithI found a trailof tales and challenges, bits of wisdom, guiding scripture anddevotionals that stopped me in my tracks and made me evaluate whereI am in my walk - Nick Melnick, Worship Leader andHiker

Randy Motz & Georgia Harris

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2010 by Randy A. Motz & GeorgiaL. Harris

The Qualtech ResourceGroup, Inc.

This book is also available in a printedition at most online retailers.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personalenjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away toother people. If you would like to share this book with anotherperson, please purchase another copy for each recipient. If you arereading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchasedfor your use only, then please return it to Smashwords.com andpurchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work ofthis author.

Cover Design: RandyMotz , TheQualtech Resource Group, Inc.

Cover Photos: Georgia L. Harris

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are takenfrom the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.TM. Used by permission ofZondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (The Message) aretaken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000,2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

All other references mentioned in this bookare trademarked and/or copyrighted and are used with permission ofthe respective authors or publishers.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

: The Path

: Prayer

: Perseverance

: Family andCommunity

: Praise andWorship

: Materialism versusSimplicity

: Pride andHumility

: Service

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As with any worthwhile endeavor, nothingcan be successfully accomplished without the help of many friends,family and associatesthis book is no exception. We wish to thankRoger and Mary Ellen Franks who first asked us about the spiritualaspects of our hike after we returned home. Our gratitude also goesout to the churches where we initially shared the message ofspiritual lessons from the trail they motivated us to talkthrough and refine the key points we have identified as chapters inthis book.

To the many capable and loving people whoreviewed and edited this book, Ken Jackson, Mathew and Gina McCabe,David and Barbara Curtis, Craig and Suzy Miles, Cathy Benton andNick Melnick, we offer our heartfelt thanks. Your editorial andspiritual contributions were extremely insightful and helped usmore clearly reflect on what we wanted to say and to evaluate howwe could best reach our intended audience.

To my hiking partner, best friend, andloving wife, Georgia, go my personal thanks for creating theoutline for this work, researching and selecting Scriptural contentand other suitable references, composing the devotionals, as wellas editing, editing, and editing. Thanks for pushing me to stayfocused on writing and avoid being distracted by the busyness oflife. You are my biggest critic and most loyal fan.

Most especially, Georgia and I wish to thankGod for giving us the opportunity to hike the Appalachian Trailwhere we came to better know and understand Him. Thank you forblessing us with the passion, gifts and the talents to communicatewhat a walk of faith is like through the words in this book.

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Wededicate this book to our parents and our children from whom wereceive so much love, strength, encouragement and inspiration. Itis to you that we wish to pass on our understanding of faith andhow it influences our lives. May what we learned about faith andlife on the Appalachian Trail help you make your journey throughlife all that you dreamed it would be and all that God intended tobe.

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Life is a fascinating journey, a wondrouslabyrinth of unforeseen circumstances, opportunities, challenges,consequences, relationships and enlightenment. Along the journeyare countless opportunities to experience and learn: to laugh, tocry, to fear, to overcome, to love, to feel anger, and to grow ashuman beings, each in our own unique way. There are also momentswhen, despite our best intentions and efforts, we lose our way. Thetwists and turns of our existence take us down paths where wesometimes find ourselves lost and searching for the way back towhere we were intended to travel. Hopefully, those misguidedexcursions are brief, leaving no lasting ill effects, and we learnvaluable life-lessons from themlessons that allow us to return tothe path of life we were once on with a greater understanding ofourselves. This myriad of unique experiences, and how we react toand embrace them, defines who we are or who we will become. It isup to each of us to make the most of our own journey and developour own sense of self and purpose. We each set goals for our livesand strive to reach those goals by using lifes experiences, bothpositive and negative, as a map. In many respects, lifesremarkable pilgrimage is not all that different from backpackingthe Appalachian Trail.