Every adventure will have its share of setbacks. Three days into our PCT hike my brand new “smart phone” performed a random reset. All my email accounts, Facebook, apps, contacts, etc., gone. The next day, the battery died and the phone would not recharge. After some intense negotiations with my carrier (by Sharon) they agreed to send me a new phone. I picked it up in Idylwild a few days ago and headed up Mount San Jacinto the next morning. We faced record high snows and traversed extensive snow fields. It took four days and three nights to get over the mountain and down to the desert at Cabazon Pass. Yesterday we were knee deep in snow at 8500 feet elevation, today we shuffled through a sandstorm at 1300 feet on the desert floor.

Why am I telling you this? Not for sympathy, though that is welcome. It’s all part of the adventure of faith. Today we pressed hard to reach our resupply boxes at the Cabazon Post Office (thanks to Carol O’Farrell). We weren’t sure we would make it but God provided. PCT hikers call it Trail Magic. I call it God. We expected to try to hitch-hike to Cabazon. Instead we were met by a team of kind souls who welcomed us down from the mountain, gave us food, cold pop, fruit, and Snickers, lots of Snickers. Then they drove us to the P. O. Yeah God! and all of His servants.

The Journey of faith is like that; unexpected setbacks and surprising breakthroughs. We can choose to focus on one or the other.