I went on a two-mile hike today. Painful from start to finish, it was the hardest hike of my life. It was also my most satisfying.

Shrouded from the world by the branches of giant Cedars, it was the hike I had, not the one from 2 weeks or 2 years ago, or a future fantasy walk of pain-free ease. Pain comes and goes, but the gratitude one has for the opportunity to feel that pain should be as timeless in being’s grace as the shadows cast under my feet by the giant Cedars.