{"id":3086,"date":"2023-10-20T07:43:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T11:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3086"},"modified":"2023-10-20T07:43:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T11:43:10","slug":"gods-exchange-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/20\/gods-exchange-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"God’s Exchange Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>
\u00a0
In the summer of 1995, 26-year-old Cheryl Strayed solo hiked 1,100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail.
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The PCT traverses some of America\u2019s most daunting wilderness areas.\u00a0 Cheryl strode from the Mohave Desert through the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest.
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Her adventures are documented in her best-selling memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail<\/em>.\u00a0 Reese Witherspoon received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Strayed in Wild, <\/em>the 2014 film adaptation of the book.
\u00a0
By her own admission, her life was a mess.
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She felt crushed by the cancer death of her mother two years earlier.
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Within the previous 12 months she had essentially sabotaged her marriage.\u00a0 \u201cI broke my own heart,\u201d she wrote.
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Her divorce papers included this question:\u00a0 What name do you plan to use in the future? \u00a0Up to that moment she had been Cheryl Nyland.\u00a0 \u201cThat blank line stuck in my heart.\u00a0 I would choose a new name for myself.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Ultimately she felt drawn to \u201cstrayed.\u201d
\u00a0
\u201cThe layered definitions spoke directly to my life:\u00a0 To wander from the proper path, to deviate from the direct course, to be lost, to become wild, to be without a mother or father, to be without a home, to move about aimlessly in search of something, to diverge or digress.<\/em>\u201d
\u00a0
She felt like a stray.\u00a0 A stray who had strayed.\u00a0 So she would be Cheryl Strayed.
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She was woefully unprepared to tackle one of the world\u2019s toughest trails.\u00a0 She had no training and little understanding of the perils she would be facing.
\u00a0
She began her hike in the California desert with so much stuff that she could barely lift her own pack, a back-breaking burden that she decided to call Monster.\u00a0 Her brand new boots were a size too small.\u00a0 Halfway through her trek her feet hurt so badly she could barely walk.\u00a0
\u00a0
Another PCT hiker glanced at her shoes and observed that they were from REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc., the outdoors superstore).\u00a0 \u201cWhy don\u2019t you exchange them?\u201d he suggested.\u00a0
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Right<\/em>.\u00a0 As if that could happen in the middle of nowhere.\u00a0 Strayed didn\u2019t even have enough money to cover shipping.\u00a0 Just call them, the other hiker persisted.
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With no expectations, Strayed dialed REI\u2019s number from a pay phone at the next PCT rest area.\u00a0
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\u201cWe\u2019d be delighted to send you a new pair of boots, one size larger,\u201d said the REI rep.\u00a0 No questions asked.\u00a0 No need to beg or plead.\u00a0 No need to turn in the old ones.\u00a0 Free of charge.\u00a0 Free shipping.\u00a0 \u201cLook for them at the mailroom at the next PCT rest stop.\u201d
\u00a0
Her new boots did indeed arrive, just as promised.\u00a0 And they carried Strayed and her sore feet all the way to the state of Washington.
\u00a0
God\u2019s exchange policy is a bit like REI\u2019s.\u00a0
\u00a0
We may be going through life crippled.\u00a0 Self-crippled, for that matter.\u00a0 We\u2019re spiritual strays who may have no clue that amazing grace has always been available.
\u00a0
\u201cNow that we know what we have\u2014Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God\u2014let\u2019s not let it slip through our fingers. We don\u2019t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He\u2019s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all\u2014all but the sin. So let\u2019s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help\u201d (Hebrews 4:14-16, The Message<\/em>).\u00a0
\u00a0
It\u2019s free.\u00a0
\u00a0
Just call.<\/em>

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0In the summer of 1995, 26-year-old Cheryl Strayed solo hiked 1,100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail.\u00a0The PCT traverses some of America\u2019s most daunting wilderness areas.\u00a0 Cheryl strode from the Mohave Desert through the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest.\u00a0Her adventures are documented in her best-selling memoir Wild:… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[101],"class_list":["post-3086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-grace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3088,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3086\/revisions\/3088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}