Many people rediscovered the joy of walking during lockdown
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In the early stages of the lockdown when we were only allowed to go outdoors for exercise once a day I noticed that I was not the only person who seemed to be doing more walking than we had ever done before.
Many were going at what to me was a very brisk rate whilst others of us were taking things so easy that some might well accuse us of stretching the truth somewhat if we claimed to be exercising!
Alfred Wainwright (1907–1991) was a noted British fell walker.
He hailed from Blackburn and as a boy used to go walking in the Lancashire hills describing himself as having been “ill-shod and ill- clothed with jam butties in my pocket”.
One week in 1930 changed his life.
He went for a holiday to Kendal in the Lake District and fell in love with it.
After that he spent all his leisure time walking in that district.
He eventually moved to Kendal and lived there for the rest of his life.
On every walk Wainwright kept a notebook with little maps and details of routes, places to stop and see things and very useful information on places of interest.
He was always being asked for information and eventually decided that the best thing to do was to publish his notebooks. He wrote many best-selling guidebooks and his seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, has become the standard reference work to 214 of the fells of the English Lake District. He subsequently wrote a guide to walks in the Scottish hills which he also loved.
Among his 40-odd other books is the first guide to the Coast to Coast Walk, a 192-mile footpath devised by himself which remains popular to this day.
At the end of the walk there is an inn. Wainwright decided to encourage people to make this walk, so he left some money at the inn. Each person who completed the walk was rewarded with a free pint of beer. So many people completed the journey that the reward was reduced to a half-pint!
The Christian life is sometimes described as a journey and our reward as Christians is to know that Jesus has walked before us on life’s way and to know that he will be with us every step of the way.
He tells us that there are two ways: one leading to destruction and another leading to life. He also says that the latter way is hard and that those who find it are few so let us make sure that we have begun this journey by entering in through the narrow gate and by walking in his footsteps.
He’s still saying “follow me” to us today and in an age of religious pluralism still claims: “I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me.”
The verses God used more than any other to bring me to himself as an 18 year old were Proverbs 3:5-6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.
Over these past 47 years I have always found him to be true to his word. Whatever our circumstances if we are trusting in Christ God is leading us to a future filled with hope (Jeremiah 29:11). He is with us now and will be with us always, a light to our path, leading us to mercy, grace, forgiveness, and spiritual healing, as he leads us in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
