maybe life is like mountain climbing, moving upward is slow, hard work and takes a long time.  Reaching the top is wonderful; a beautiful view and time to rest.  But you can’t live on the mountain top.  The air is too thin, there is no level ground on which to spread out and get comfortable – there is no place to set up camp and make a home.

which means after every journey of ascent there is a corresponding journey of descent which must follow, it is inevitable.  The journey of ascent is so long, the journey of descent so quick that we must take care not to fall too far.  Why do we climb the mountains in our lives at all?  Maybe because those we cannot move, we climb, as climbing them is another way to conquer them.

I am told God can move mountains, so why does He leave so many mountains in the path of my life for me to deal with?  Why can’t they just disappear?  Climbing them takes so much time and energy and intention.  I have to depend on God to help me conquer my current mountain, I can’t succeed in my own strength, so I draw closer to my Creator for the journey.  I become strong as I climb ever upward each day, learning new disciplines to sustain me in my journey.  Climbing requires my dedication and my perseverance.  God is my coach, teaching me, training me, preparing me for the next mountain in my path while enabling me to climb my current one.

My life has purpose and meaning as I push onward to my goal.  And by the time I summit, I have become a different person than I was when I began the ascent from my past position.  I have grown.  But I can’t stay there. The summit is not my final destination.  There will be other hills, other valleys, other peaks to enjoy, other pits to dig myself out of.

Yes, I said pits.  We all know about those pot holes in our road, some of which seem to catch us unawares, then grow and deepen around us, ultimately engulfing and entrapping us.  It is then we cry out for someone to rescue us.  King David knew all too well this experience of being in the pit.  “I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”  (Psalm 40:1-2)  Isn’t that what we all want?  a firm foundation on which to stand.

We can’t stay on the mountain top, we don’t want to live in the pit – we need level ground.  “Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”  (Psalm 143:10)  And God does lead me just as Isaiah 45:2 says, “I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.”

Isaiah 40:3-4 talks about the way of the Lord being prepared much like He goes before me, preparing my way.  “In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.”  There’s that level ground again.  So sometimes God levels my mountain but other times He helps me to climb it.

“It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.  He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He enables me to stand on the heights.”  (Psalm 18:32-33)  “He will not let your foot slip – He who watches over you will not slumber.” (Psalm 121:3)  This is good to know and for me to remember when I am in the middle of climbing that mountain because I need that reassurance when the climb is steep and I want to quit.

“For You have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.”  (Psalm 56:13)  So He helps me not to stumble to my death as I ascend and as I descend on my journey and search for level ground.  That is where most of life is lived, between the depths and the heights – on level ground.  “My feet stand on level ground; in the great assembly I will praise the Lord.”  (Psalm 26:12)

God doesn’t move all my mountains for me because He knows I need the exercise of the climb to grow strong and to stay in shape, prepared for whatever will come next.  Without the challenge difficulty brings, I would grow weak, lazy and complacent and much more easily fall into a pit just when I was least prepared to escape it.  (no wonder they are called pitfalls)

Sometimes I long for the view from the mountain top, but the life I live on the level ground, in between the mountains, the molehills, the pitfalls and the perils is full of miracles as well.  (hence blog name – miracles amid the mundane)  The fact that God shows up everyday in my everyday is miracle enough for me and far more than I deserve.  But He does.  And I’m so thankful.

It is in the ordinary of the everyday, the mundane, that I most experience His presence and His miracles.  “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength,”  (Isaiah 30:15)

“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”  (Psalm 46:10)

sincerely,       Grace Day