Fables, Fantasy, Faith

My Mountain

20160227_140626_001It’s been a long time. Too long. I’d grown complacent with my stuffy air, hot coffee and spinning office chair. I forgot what it’s like to step from  my comforts and test myself.  The reward of taking on a challenge outweighed the risk of vulnerability.

Deep right?  Yeah, well that’s what happens when you climb a mountain. It’s funny to me how a day in creation forces me to be tediously introspective. I could go on and on about why that is and fill this post with sappy allegories of mountaintop vistas and new perspectives on life, but I’ll refrain. I think we’ve all been there in some form or another.  We’ve experienced the high (pun somewhat intended) of the climb and the deflation of traversing the valley again, then we equate our hike to our own lives.  The less wise wish they could stay on the mountain, the more mature understand why they need to go back down; and then there are people like me,  I’ll call them the Complacent. We don’t realize we started our adventure on the mountain to hike down to the valley…  How’s that for deep?

Like I said it’s been a long time.  Too long.  I’d grown complacent with my stuffy air, hot coffee and spinning office chair- That’s my mountain. Don’t mistake this for sarcasm, I am a blessed man.  It’s impossible for me to limit my home to trivialities.  God has blessed me, with two beautiful boys and a loving wife. Home is my safe place. It truly is a mountaintop experience for me. It’s a great thing, no doubt, but my luxuries at home keep me from venturing into the valley.

So much of my life has been spent trying to replicate my last mountaintop experience. I want to stay there. Usually a mountaintop experience involves a new perspective on my life after an amazing encounter with God. Weeks or days go by and I find myself back in a valley, trekking through trials and weathering life’s storms. God never intended for us to stay on the mountain. We are to do our work in the valleys. He calls us up to the mountains from time to time, to be tested, renewed and possibly get a glimpse of the valleys which we’re destined to return, but the mountaintops are only to be visited, not settled.

God’s been calling me from my mountain. Time to get dirty and do life in the valleys. Stop making excuses, stop making efforts to maintain my comfort. It’s time to be intentional, plan my next steps, gear up and make the trek God’s prepared me to endeavor.  Hopefully in time I’ll be more afraid to stay on the mountain than to venture into the valleys.

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.