One of the coolest things that I got to do in Albania was hiking Mount Dijt in Tirana. One of our Albanian friends goes hiking often so he voluteered to take us up and go camping for a night. So some of us brought our day-packs and others (me) brought our big packs.
First, we took a cable car up.
Then we started hiking and it was honestly pretty smooth and flat. And also GORGEOUS!
However, we eventually got to a dead end and we realized we needed to go back so that we could get to a better spot for camping. So we went back down.
But then we realized that to get to this spot to stay the night, we had to literally go straight up-hill for an 1 1/2. It was one of the most physically exhausting things I have had to do. But I told myself before we started that if I did my best to stay at the front, then I wouldn’t be able to get stuck in my head and want to quit.
I had to keep going though. I still had left overs of bronchitis, I’m not terribly in-shape, and I have runners asthma, and I had my big pack: Meaning I was gasping to breathe the whole way up, but I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. And I made it!
I realized it is like that in our faith. It sometimes is incredibly difficult, your gasping for breath and all you want to do is sit and rest. As you keep looking forward you may not see that you have made much progress and you only see this mountain you have to climb. But you still have to climb it! So you put one foot in front of the other and just keep going and eventually you make it to the very top where you can see the growth. Often the things that challenge us the most are worth the most.
