In early 2004 I was asked to going hunting with Pastor Will from the local church.  I enjoy hunting and agreed to go with him which was quite an experience. As we were driving down old State Road 101, we drove through Rea Valley and on mile after mile.  He pointed out a few places of which I'd not been aware.  A mountain behind which was the White river and Buffalo City, for instance. We'd gone on when it turned to gravel and dirt;  a place about 10 or 15 miles from the main road.  We drove through creek beds...   that's right, no bridge, just drive THROUGH the creek. We'd gone on past the old road I once took that was far too rugged for my new Grand Am I was driving.  On into places where I'd never been.  I never realized that we were going to enter the rugged territory that I saw ahead of me.  I was beginning to be thankful that Will had a four wheel drive pickup truck.  I also started feeling like I should never have joked about it because it was a Chevy truck. He told me not to worry because this was not bad at all, and he turns down a grade into a creek and over large rocks.  I'm thinking, it can't get much worse...   right?  "It will get worse" he says but assured me that he knew what he was doing.  At least once I questioned if I knew what I was doing when I agreed to come with him.  I was now seeing deep ruts and large rocks, over which he was proceeding and on a road which appeared like no one's been there for at least decade or two. I considered that I was wanting to hunt for squirrel, not bear, elk or anything else large.  I only wanted some squirrel 'n' dumplins.  However, we were traveling still deeper into the mountains and progressively more rugged roads. There were times when I thought my finger marks might be imprinted into the steel of the truck's body from the death grip I'd placed on it.  But he said we had a ways to go yet.  What next? He asked if I was aware of the hippy camp ahead.  Uh...   Hippies?   I remember them...   Bell bottoms, head bands, granny glasses, platform shoes and long hair on everyone.  They should be getting rather old by now.  He told me that they were no longer living there.  That's ok since I don't think a hippy could get back there anyway the way the roads are. Finally we came upon the old buildings of the hippy commune.  What looked like a makeshift house...   with lots of air-conditioning through the holes in the walls and roof.  A pole fenced area where they once kept goats or some such critters. As we were at this hippy area, Will pointed out a mountain to the right of me.  He told me that we were going to the backside of that mountain.  Well, that was only about a half mile or so away.  Our trip must be about finished...                 ...no such luck.  We drove on and on into no where.  Finally, we came upon a road on which Will says we'll be leaving.  It looked pretty good.  It had a nice rather smooth road bed.  Well it's about time we see a decent road. He informs me that we'll be hunting just ahead along the Buffalo River.  It amazed me that the Buffalo River could find it's way through this place. On my left is a deep ravine that progressively gets deeper.  When it's about 20 feet deep he says, "I'd like to get over there." I'm thinking, "OVER WHERE?!?   DRIVING?"   He might be good driving a four wheel drive truck, but across a 20 foot deep ravine that's about as wide?  I think not...   but he backs up looking for something...   a bridge maybe? Finally we come to a dead end at the river.  Wow!  This road DOES  have an end and we didn't end up in Little Rock. We started into the woods along the river and he tells me that he'll go up along the ridge and I can stay low and he would run the squirrels to me.  Uh huh, and I would be running them to him too. It wasn't too bad as I got deeper into the trees but the brush and cane was thickening.  I'd gotten only a couple hundred feet into it and the cane was so thick I would barely move.  As I tried to move slightly up the slope, I found a road....   an old one but a road never-the-less.  I heard a squirrel or two barking at me so I stopped, watched and listened.  After a bit, I moved on across the road to the old foundation of a house where I sat down and watched and listened. I thought I saw a squirrel in a tree but it didn't move.  Could it be a knot?  Maybe.  But I remained and listened. Finally I heard the call of some wild creature calling in the brisk air, "JOSEPH!... . .   JOSEPH!" Oh, that's not a critter, that's the great white hunter...   I call back and soon I heard the hunter sneaking through the brush so's not to startle the wildlife.  The only sounds I'd heard was "CRACKLE!  SNAP!  CRUNCH!  POP!  SNAP!  POP!  CRACKLE!  CRUNCH!"  And bursting through the bushes came Pastor Will.  He was about as subtle as a freight train. We had gone back to the truck and decided to do some target practice.   A limb floating downstream in the river....   I'd even learned that one can skip bullets on water.  How Fascinating!!! Welp?  It came time to move toward home.  I was glad that we had that nicer road on which to go back home. As we left the river bottom, we got back to the intersection and turned down the nicer road.  Ah, we'll be home soon.  I thought...   Nicer?  Well let's recap that a bit...                 ...The road was nice for about 50 feet, then it got worse.  We'd weaved through trees and around rocks, and we'd gone over boulders, and some seemed close to two feet high. If you recall, I'd mentioned the mountain that was only about a half mile away.  Well, on the way back we'd gone over the mountain he'd referred to on the way in...   at least I think so.  We were to go only about a half mile or so but we had to go over all the rocks, creeks, mountains and such. This seems like a long way to go, and a lot to go through, just to get a half mile.  However, it made me think of life itself.  We want to get from point "a", Salvation and re-birth, to point "b", physical death and life with Christ, but there's so much trouble, hardships and trials to go through. So we must press on, through the struggles and continue toward the mark and not give up. When we keep on, getting through the difficult times, we are rewarded with eternal life in Glory with Jesus Christ who was with us all the time.  It's just like Will was with me, and while I was seeing all the difficulties we were going through, he was there reassuring me, saying that it's ok and that he'd been there before and done it all before. Jesus Christ has been through it all before, and gone through the same struggles that we are going through.  With Him by our side, we have nothing to fear.  We will get through.  We can make it.