The Longest Road to Walk
According to CNBC TV Travel and some social media influencers:
The longest road in the world to walk, is from Cape Town (South Africa) to Magadan (Russia). No need for planes or boats, there are bridges. It's a 22,387 kilometers (13911 miles) and it takes 4,492 hours to travel. It would be 187 days walking nonstop, or 561 days walking 8 hours a day. Along the route, you pass through 17 countries, six time zones and all seasons of the year.
CNBC reports:
If you are thinking about embarking on this journey on foot, you will have to keep walking continuously for a total of 4,492 hours. Without breaks, the total time accumulates to 187 days.
If you are thinking about walking eight hours a day, then you will be able to cover this distance in 562 days. In this time, you can conquer the world’s highest peak Mount Everest 13 times and return, as per reports.
This route passes through several conflicted nations like Syria and Sudan. To enter some of these nations on the route, you will be required to apply for a visa.
Besides this, you will be required to deal with the scorching heat of the Sahara Desert, Siberia's nail-biting snow, and so much more.
According to multiple reports, "... no person has been able to complete this long walk so far."
The Bible is replete with references to our spiritual journey being a path, a walk, or a course. At times, walking this path of this Christian life can feel like the longest, most challenging, most difficult walk in the world. But scripture calls us to "run with endurance the race that is set before us." We're challanged to ask, "where the ggod way is; and walk in it." We're told that when we trust in God, He will "make your paths straight." We're admonished to ""Ponder the path of your feet," and to "mark out a straight path." And we're warned to never look back at the road behind us, but to "press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
When the road your on feels like you're trying to trudge your way from the Capetown to Magadan, through time zones, and battle zones, over the hot sands of the Sahara, and through bone chilling snow drifts of Siberia, keep moving. The Lord Himself walked that road for you, and He will be there to receive you at the finish.
And unlike the reports of the Cape Town to Magadan road which "... no person has been able to complete ... so far," this treck has been completed by masses who alll crossed the finish line, there to hear the words of the Savior, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."
"Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls" (Jeremiah 6:16, ESV).
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1, ESV).
"John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord" (John 1:23, NIV).
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV).
"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalms 16:11, NIV).
"Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me" (Psalms 5:8, NIV).
"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6, NIV).
"Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure" (Proverbs 4:26, ESV).
"Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths" (Psalms 25:4, ESV).
"So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong. Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord" (Hebres 12:12-14, NLT).
"And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them" (Isaiah 42:16, ESV).
"Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil" (Proverbs 4:26-27, ESV).
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12-14, NIV).
Trusting the Tour Guide
My wife an I took a vacation to Boston. We love to travel when we can and we tend to try to see everything a person can possibly see. On our first day in Boston we walked the Freedom Trail. We could have taken a 2 hour tour (with a tour guide!), but we wanted to see it all. We wanted to do it our way. We took the better part of the morning and afternoon seeing it all. I'm not sure how far we walked, but it was miles. Near the end of the Freedom Trail you find the Bunker Hill monument. It's 294 steps up the 221 foot tall monument. That's about 22 stories after walking all day. You also have to come down the steps.
*Stair number 200 in the climb to the top of the Bunker Hill Monument.
Once we got outside, my legs were so weak that I was wobbly. I had to stop and gather myself, but it was only about 4pm and we had the USS Constitution, the Boston Public Library, and Cheers to see that day. So we kept going. In the middle of the evening tour of the Boston Library, I realized that I couldn't walk down any of the steps. I was holding onto rails and "floating down." It was the same trying to go down the stairs to the subway. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to be injured for the rest of our trip!
Many of us are striving to accomplish so many things in life. We want money, power, relationships, things for our family. We strive after it all and never slow down. I didn't want to use a tour guide because I wanted it all. To be fair, the tour guides do a shorter version, and might have left out some of the more subtle or less prominent details.
And just like our hesitance to avail ourselves of the expertise and expedience of the tour guide, we often tend to assume (wrongly) that God, as well, may give us the "less than ideal tour." Afterall, we tend to "want it all" and not necessarily want what is "best."
Psalm 46:10 says "be still" or "cease striving" and "know that I AM God."
Once you stop long enough to know God, you begin to understand that following the Holy Spirit is better than striving after all the things you think you need, and you discover what you are truly created for.
What's A Moon Tree?
Mother Nature Network reports:
Moon trees were grown from seeds astronaut Stuart Roosa carried in his personal kit on the Apollo 14 mission in early February 1971. About 500 loblolly pine, redwood, sweet gum, sycamore and Douglas fir tree seeds went up with him and orbited the moon 34 times. (Roosa stayed on board while astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell made the third moon landing.)
Roosa had been a smoke jumper (that's a forest fire first responder) for the U.S. Forest Service prior to becoming an astronaut, and he brought the seeds not only to honor the service, but also to run a simple test: Would the seeds that had gone to the moon sprout as easily as Earth-only seeds?
About 450 of the seeds sprouted in similar numbers and as typically as their Earth-only control seeds. After a few years of care at NASA, the now-baby trees were planted in locations across the United States, many as part of the 1976 bicentennial celebrations.
Where are the trees? According to NASA,
A loblolly pine was planted at the White House, and trees were planted in Brazil, Switzerland, and presented to the emperor of Japan, among others. Trees have also been planted in Washington Square in Philadelphia, at Valley Forge, in the International Forest of Friendship, and at various universities and NASA centers."
...Roosa died in 1994, but a moon sycamore grows at his grave at Arlington National Cemetery.
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As it turns out, a moon tree is no different from its earthly counterpart. Merely visiting the moon didn’t change the nature of the seeds. All that changed was the world’s estimation ... it made them famous.
One has to wonder why anyone ever thought that simply orbiting the moon 34 times would somehow change the nature of a seed. Likewise, one has to wonder why it is so many seem to believe that simply attending a church every week will somehow change the nature of a person.
The truth is, people who go to church are subject to the same temptations as people who don’t attend. And many of them fail, just like their non-church attending counterpart. Human nature doesn’t change just because we've spent time in close proximity to a church. However, faith in God’s promise does invite the presence of God's Spirit, resulting in a new capacity to desire the things of God.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).