The Longest Walk

In 1977, George Meegan started walking. It wasn’t just a walk; it was a 19,019-mile unbroken walk from the southern tip of South America to the northernmost point in Alaska. It took him 2,426 days ending in September of 1983. He secured a total of eight world records, in a feat that had never been done before. 

Meegan’s journey was not easy, he started out with no money or equipment, just relying on the kindness of strangers. At one point he was even shot at, slashed with a knife, and attacked by his own guide. In the end he wore out 12 ½ hiking boots. 

George Meegan was not a quitter; he never gave up, and through it all he kept going forward. In an interview with the Washington Post, he stated, “I think there’s something in every human being that has to try and go the limit.”

Do you feel that way some days? For many people the Christian Walk seems like a long walk, a difficult walk. So how do we do it? One step at a time, one day at a time, one moment at a time, trusting God every step of the way. 

In Genesis 5:22, Moses writes about a man who once walked with God. His name was Enoch, and the Bible says he walked with God 300 years, then the Lord took him. So, what does it mean to walk with God? 

Enoch loved the Lord and also kept His commandments. He was from the family line of Seth, and many may not realize it, but Adam was still alive when Enoch walked this earth. Enoch actually heard from Adam’s lips the story of the fall and the story of redemption, the Redeemer who would come. Enoch also lived not too many years before the flood, so he was witnessing the increase of wickedness. Genesis 6:11, tells us that the earth was corrupt and filled with violence. Verse 5 tells us that the “wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” 

So here was Enoch living in this environment, troubled by the increasing wickedness and the irreverence for God. Yet He walked with God and stayed true to Him. He maintained his connection with God and stayed loyal. I am sure He was a defender of the faith and called out the sins he was witnessing. His warnings probably fell on deaf ears and was mocked in return. But despite of all this wickedness his walk with the Lord continued to grow closer and closer. His union with purity and harmony of heaven grew so close that God took him to heaven without seeing death. 

What does this mean for us? We live in a society where upright moral character doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Wickedness only seems to be increasing, but yet as Christians we must also defend the faith and spread the gospel message. We must call out sin but yet love the sinner. Enoch maintained a godly character and a state of holiness, which we must obtain also. 

“But like Enoch, God’s people will seek for purity of heart and conformity to His will, until they shall reflect the likeness of Christ. Like Enoch, they will warn the world of the Lord’s second coming and of the judgments to be visited upon transgression, and by their holy conversation and example they will condemn the sins of the ungodly.” ^[1]

This is how God’s people ought to be living today. 

Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 

Hebrews tells us that Enoch pleased God. How did he please God, just what we have read. How about you? Do you want to please the Lord? You can by living a godly life in the midst of a world filled with iniquity. The Christian Walk is not always an easy walk, in fact it can be quite challenging. But just like George who walked over 19,000 miles, he did it one step at a time, one day at a time. Matthew gives us this promise “Who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matt. 24:13).