Walking Through Pain and Purpose: Reflections from Israel

Guest Post by Pastor Wiley Reinhardt, Dayton, Ohio

We walked an average of 5.2 miles for eight days, with 8.5 miles being the longest day. My legs were in pain. My Hokas were doing their part, but I discovered they were made to be worn by someone already in shape.

Maybe you’ve climbed a flight of stairs and your legs began to burn. Lactic acid is the culprit when oxygen can’t keep up with energy demands.

No matter where I stood my feet hurt. I shifted to a broad stance. Same result. I leaned against a pole, didn’t help. Occasionally there would be a place to sit for a few men. It was acceptable to sit, but not quit.

Please don’t think I’m being overly dramatic - no one was dying. But there was a lesson being learned, or reinforced. This wasn’t a track team getting a work out - I wasn’t the only one in pain. My upper extremities were fine. But my legs and feet were being taxed. The last day in Poland was 18 to 20 thousand steps. If you’re a step counter you know that’s a lot.

We flew to Israel next and it’s a city of hills. We descended the longest hill I can ever recall. You had to apply “brakes” with each step by tensing up your thigh muscles to keep from being a runaway truck. "Is there a bottom to this hill?” It seemed never ending. A physical challenge it was. But no one quit.

This was the same incline the blind man sent down to wash in the pool of Siloam. Ok, toughen up. A blind man made this journey.

From there it was back up that same hill but this time it was a newly discovered pathway not yet open to the public. It was a current archaeological dig. JESUS Himself factually walked up this same path. The guide was beyond emphatic that Jesus walked here.

It was a trail of 36 men - single file up the hill that was a stress test without a treadmill. I didn’t quit but I felt like it. I couldn’t have been alone in my exhaustion. I couldn’t have been alone in my pain - and that was it.

It was empowering to know we were in this (pain) together.

A blind man went down this hill and back up it - 2,000 years ago. But this day I wasn’t alone. The man in front of me inspired me - if he can, I can. There were men behind me that needed me to keep going - if I stop they have to stop.

Sure it was just a steep pathway - but it is a metaphor for life. Someone has been right where you are - and they made it.

And you can too.