Review - The Walk - Appalachian Trail

One of the fun things about being a book lover and blogger is occasionally I'll get a chance to read an inspiring book that was completely off my radar. This week I got to do that as I read "The Walk - Reflections on Life and Faith from the Appalachian Trail," by Randy Motz and Georgia Harris. Randy ran across several of my reviews on Amazon and asked if he could send me a review copy of this book, which he described as "stories from our six months on the trail, scripture passages, inspirational quotations, prayers and devotionals to draw the many parallels between walking the trail and a walk of faith." I'm glad I took at look at it...

Randy "Windtalker" Motz and his wife and hiking partner Georgia "Mom" Harris love hiking, music, telling stories, and sharing their faith. The subtitle describes the book well - a reflection on life and faith. Across eight chapters they share a number of great things they learned as they saw parallels between their spectacular 2,175 mile journey and the walk of faith as a Christian - insights on prayer, perseverance, community, praise and worship, materialism and simplicity, pride and humility, and service.

Some distinctive features of the book: a warm conversational tone, always reflecting awe and wonder for God's creation and never condescending, blocks quotes sharing some words of Native American Wisdom, several prayers and devotional thoughts, and some keen insights on the Christian walk. I like how they found, as introverts expect to marvel most at scenery, just how more impactful were the people they met along the way, discovering that "The people ARE the trail. When you do life with people, it changes you." (great words for every small group leader to hear!)  Their prayer: "Lord, give me the compassion to love those around me as you would love them. Help me be an encourager to everyone I meet on the path."

The Walk: Reflections on Life and Faith from the Appalachian Trail can be ordered along with other resources at QualtechResourceGroup.com or from Amazon.