Like Climbing Mountains

This last week afforded me the time to climb mountains in both Colorado and Oregon. Every single time I say there’s nothing like it. The company is good, the views are incredible, and the accomplishment feels great too. It also affords you time to think- either long climbs gasping for breath that you turn to thinking instead of talking, or long drives through mountains, forests, and wide open plains. 

So that’s where my mind went yesterday. There’s this thought that is becoming prevalent in Christian culture, which I can stand by with new followers of Jesus, but there’s something in me that can’t continue to stand with it because my heart knows there’s so much more. Life is like climbing mountains. You see, we here in the Willamette Valley sit at approximately sea level, give or take a few hundred feet. Mountains in Colorado? They check in at around 14,000 ft. My dad asked me before leaving last week if I had been doing much to prepare, to which I replied, “ha, nope.” Not necessarily because I shouldn’t have, but at the same time I wasn’t concerned either. I knew I had done it before and I knew it was possible. Hard work lends to beauty, which is achievable. Sounds a little bit like life, huh? 

I truly think that almost anyone could have climbed the mountains I did this week. With the exception of maybe a few 90 year olds, etc. For the sake of this post, I’ll say that most any person could have done it. Yes, it may have taken longer, or would have had to stop more often, but they could have done it. But not everyone does. What’s sad, is that I know that there are a lot of people that probably have started and gotten to a point that was beautiful enough, taken it in, and turned around. Yesterday I and one of my best friends were hiking and we kept seeing these beautiful mountain views, but it literally wasn’t until the last few feet did we realize that it opened up even further and we could see more mountains that we had no idea were even there till the end! I think often in our walk with Jesus, we often come away with what we thought we were after, but nothing more. Let me say it again, we get what we’re after, but we don’t stick around for more. We go a third of the way up, it’s beautiful enough, we get what we thought we wanted, and turn around. We may not stick with it, make it to the top, to find that there was so much more there waiting to be seen. 

You see, I know it’s achievable. It’s great to read your bible for 10 minutes, it’s great to start with only reading a few verses a day, I obviously think that something is better than nothing. And I personally know that I don’t have to feel guilty when that’s all I can do. But somehow that is also encouraged. And I don’t like that. I’ve tried to set big goals before, like spending an hour with Jesus everyday (and believe me, I’ve also failed a lot)  and have been encouraged to set smaller goals. Goals that to them seemed more doable, which they would have been. However, I can’t. This might sound super conceited and like I know the answers to the problems at hand in the Christian world. I surely do not, but I think I have put my finger on part of it: We are content to get enough, and leave without the more. We seek Jesus, but we leave after we think we’ve gotten what we came for. And that stirs something deep within me. We were never meant to treat our relationship with God like a vending machine. How often He must be whispering to us, there’s so much more. And it’s attainable. It’s for everyone. Like climbing mountains. A step at a time is all it takes, and maybe you don’t do it all today, but you can get to the top. It is possible, and not just once. There’s a lot of mountains to climb. He’s here to meet ya. 

...fun side note. Out of curiosity, I started googling the mountains mentioned in the Bible. I was curious what elevation some of those mountains were, the one mentioned when they “went up to the mountain” to essentially meet with God. Turns out some of them were legitimate mountains. Like they climbed a mountain to get there.