Cheryl Borek

Thanks for checking out my blog! Here's a little bit about me...

I'm crazy about Jesus and all the staggeringly awesome stuff He created - like coffee, krumholtz, and my kids, but not necessarily in that order. And grace! Don't get me started on grace - ridiculous.

"4:13" is the trail name I adopted in 2010 when my 10-year-old son and I walked from Georgia to Maine on the Appalachian Trail.

In the fourth chapter of Saint Paul's Letter to the Philippians, verses 11 and 12, Paul writes, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want."

To me, Paul captures the very essence of life as a thru-hiker - or a flesh-and bone human person on this earthly plane.

In long distance hiking, as in life, there will be times when your pack will be full to bursting, so much so that you believe you can feast and feast and feast and it feels as if the bounty will never run out. Other times, the famine is so severe that you can hardly imagine your longing, hollow self ever being satisfied again.

But in verse 13, Paul gives us the secret to living victoriously in either condition: "I can do all this through Christ who gives me strength."

Philippians 4:13 carried me over 2,000 miles, and it is carrying me still. Plethora. Paucity. It's all the same.

Just keep walking.