Backpacking with the Saints - Outside reading.

Backpacking with the Saints by Belden Lane was the book that brought me back to God this summer. I got into the practice of reading the book almost every night before going to bed but had a hard time getting through the book because of the ideas that Lane kept bringing up. I would begin to read until I came across an idea that forced me to ponder the wonder of the idea instead of just moving on in the book. The book really captured many of the experiences and feelings I was experiencing durning my time in the woods.

Belden Lane before he begins the book talks about how you can't read this book on your couch. Lane says that in order for this book to have an affect you need to be ten miles back in the woods far away from the nearest road. It was at that moment that I knew I was reading the right book.

The other concept that he brings up that really took me for a loop was the idea, that if you look at creating/the woods as God's presence manifest in physically then walking on a trail is walking on the presence of God or God himself. That really to me changed the way I approached hiking. It was no longer a way to get somewhere but a way to connect in a very intimate way to God.

The book really opened my job into something new. I began to walk with God in mind while I worked. This began to change the way I interacted with my co-workers, the plants and the views that were in front of me. I saw God in all things in a clear way like never before. My walk just like Belden Lane became my spiritual practice and God began to enter my life in all aspects instead of focused times like bible study or church on Sundays. It changed everything, God was in my life instead of something I would touch on a couple times a week. Learning to cultivate a life in communion with God has been one of the greatest joys I have ever experiences. Belden Lane helped open my life up to that in the experience of backpacking.