sometimes my mountains do get moved, but more often than not, I have to climb them.  And I get to wondering why that is?  It would be so much quicker, so much easier, if God would just move them, preferably into the sea but anywhere away from me would be just fine.  Anywhere where I no longer have to face that particular mountain anymore.

But then I got to thinking  . . .    as parents do we always remove the mountains from our children’s paths, making it easier for them and sparing them whatever difficulties dealing with the mountain would bring them?  If we do, how will they ever learn the skill of mountain climbing?  (they won’t)

Maybe that’s why my Heavenly Father leaves my mountains right where they are – in my face and in my way.  He knows I need to learn to climb them.  Mountain climbing is hard work, slow work, difficult work; it is often painful and uncertain. It’s a step at a time kind of walk.  And it’s uphill all the way!  Kind of like the walk of faith that God wants for me each day.

It’s in the climbing that I learn the lessons God knows I need to learn.  The answers are not at the top, they are discovered along the way.  In the climbing I grow stronger because I have to exert effort with every step to push forward in order to reach the summit.  If my mountain was moved for me, nothing would be required of me and I would remain unchanged.

When my next mountain appears, as they inevitably do, I will not be prepared to climb it.  That was the purpose of the first mountain.  Climbing it would have prepared me to face this one.  And I would have had the memory of the previous summit experience to encourage me, to remind me what is waiting for me at the top.

At the top?  A breathtaking  view, a new perspective, a moment of joy, satisfaction and rest – followed all too quickly by the descent.  Equally challenging in its’ own way, the descent brings us down to level ground.  But level doesn’t last in topography or in life.  The next mountain is lying in wait.

The time spent climbing is long, time at the summit is short.  But usually it is the summit we remember, the summit is where we take the picture.  We want to forget the pain of the path that brought us to our summit.  We want to remember that moment of joy, not the months or more of mundane moving step by step toward the top.

Sometimes my little mustard seed isn’t enough to move my mountain.  Or maybe climbing my mountain is what grows my mustard seed?  Either way it’s faith. Faith that moves the mountains, faith that climbs them.  Faith to walk, faith to climb, faith to follow where Jesus leads.

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”  (2 Corinthians 5:7)

“for everyone born of God overcomes the world.  This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”   (1 John 5:4)

sincerely,        Grace Day