Lessons from the Mountain

 

  

 I have hiked up two mountains in my adulthood, three if you count a hike in Idyllwild, CA when I was in college.  They weren’t very big mountains but to an inexperienced climber like me they seemed huge.  The trails were steep and often rocky and I had to climb over some pretty big boulders to get to the top of one of them. 

One of those experiences happened on a day when we drove out into the mountains with a car load of youth group teenagers for a day of hiking up the mountainside.  I was going more as a chaperone than a serious hiker. There were others much more qualified who were leading the way.  When we got to the trail head and stepped out of the car there was the mountain rising in front of us with a long winding path leading across the valley and up the mountainside.  At first the path seemed easy.  The walk was fairly level and there was lots of shade and trees. 

 

 Then, we started to climb.  Within a few minutes, my heart was beginning to pound.  I became dizzy and breathless and suddenly I had to sink to the ground.  I couldn’t do it.  Everyone gathered around me in concern and as I began to catch my breath again, I decided that everyone should go on without me and I would just return to the car and wait for them there.  So, the investigator and I turned around and began walking back.  I felt defeated.  I had failed.  And as I slowly made my way down the trail I felt a deep sense in disappointment not only for myself but for all the others.  What was wrong with me that I couldn’t do this? Other people made this hike every day.   The more I thought about it, the less I wanted to return to the car.  Suddenly, I just stopped, turned around and slowly, carefully I began to make my way back up the hillside.  

 

It was a long slow climb and I had to stop and catch my breath many times along the way. Sometimes it was just putting one foot in front of the other trying to make to the next switchback.  Every couple of turns I would have to stop and rest and each time I stopped, all the kids above me would call down encouragements to keep coming.  Once I crossed paths with an old gentleman with his walking stick on his way back down from the top.  He told me he  was 90 years old and he often made the climb several times a week.  That did it for me.  If he could do it, then so could I.  And so I continued on step by step by step.

Finally, I made it to the top where I met up with the others who were waiting for me.  As I rounded the curved and looked  out over the top I stopped and gazed out in wonder at an absolutely glorious view, mountain top upon mountain top spreading out across the Cascade Mountain Range.  It was breathtaking, a sight and experience that was more than worth every step it had taken to get there.   I felt blessed beyond measure and so thankful that I had persevered to the top.

 

Isn't this a metaphor of the Christian Walk?

 Each of us has our mountains to climb in this world and paths to walk.  We can try to bypass the mountains by avoiding pain as much as possible and taking the freeway of life around to the other side.  But if we want to get to the peaks we have to do some climbing.  And so we choose to leave the highway and take the narrow path that leads up the side of the mountain.  Sometimes, we get cut and bruised a bit in the daily grind of work and relationships but hopefully we keep going. 

Our lives are  often filled with switchbacks.  Maybe we didn’t get into the college of our choice or we were passed over for a job or our spouse is laid off and we have to move to another town.  We lose loved ones too soon.  At times, we’re scared, or weary or angry with ourselves or with our lives.  It doesn’t seem as if life is fair or we didn’t get what we wanted or expected out of life.  We face a choice.  We can choose to go back down to the valley below and try to catch the highway around our troubles and where life seems easy and safe,  living with the bitterness and disappointment that goes with it, blaming others and God for the failures of our life.  Or we can get up and continue on the path.  

 

As we turn around and begin to climb again we suddenly discover that each switchback has been taking us closer to the top.  What we thought was intended for evil, God was using for good.  He has been there all along walking beside us and even as the rocks of life get sharper he gives us the strength to carry on.  We look at the good things all around us and we start to notice that while this path might be narrow and steep there is joy along the way.  We can stop and rest in the Lord.  We are not alone in our struggles. 

 Not only are there those who are climbing the trail with us right now but there is a “great cloud of witnesses” who have walked the trail before us, loved ones who  are already at the top waiting for us and encouraging us to keep coming until finally our Lord Jesus helps us up over that last final boulder and over the ridge into a new life, eternal life.  And the view is going to be more than we had ever hoped or imagined. 

 We have finally come home.