A Mick’s up of Mountains

Do you ever hear a song that takes you back to another time and place?  I have a song like that.  Toby Mac’s "Burn for You" helped me hike a mountain, and I remember that experience every time I hear the song.

It was a climb that took me 2000 feet higher than the starting level of 6530 feet of elevation I was already not used to.  The place was Colorado Springs, and the mountain was the  Manitou Springs Incline.  Amazing!  It was quite a workout, going that high in the span of 3/4 of a mile, in less than an hour, and in air thinner than my lungs are used to.  We hiked the Standard Loop, jogging back down the mountain in rocky terrain.  What a rush!

That kind of sounds like life, doesn’t it?  We might find ourselves in unfamiliar circumstances, climbing and working hard to reach the summit, but it seems like forever while it’s happening.  We don’t know what to expect when we get there.  What does God have in store for us?  Why are we going through this trial?  We are huffing and puffing.  We are stopping part way up, trying to get the cramps out of our muscles, trying to keep from whining about the pain.  We might have someone there by our side, cheering us on, motivating us to keep moving, because it’s worth it when you reach the top.  They know, because they’ve been there.

Sometimes knowing someone is there along side of us helps.  We'll take all the help we can get.  We want to have secure footing on the heights, don't we?  Maybe you've heard of a book with a similar story:  Hinds Feet on High Places  Don't let things distract you.  Don't let discouragement drag you down and cause you to bail out.  Keep with it.  You'll feel great when you finish!

When you finally take those last grueling steps at the top, you turn and see a beautiful sunrise.  Think about it.  Would you have seen such a spectacular sight, if you hadn’t gone through what you just did?  You’re seeing the sunrise sooner than you would have if you stayed at the bottom of the mountain.  What a treat, and what a relief!

Now that you reached the top, don’t collapse and lay there doing nothing more.  It’s time to use that momentum to go on to the next stage of the journey.  God just might be using that experience to send you on to someone else going through something similar.  It could be that you’ll be cheering and coaching a brother or sister in their journey.

Whatever the mountain you’re climbing today, hear me and others around you saying, “Keep climbing!  It’s worth it!  You can do it!”

“The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.”

Habakkuk 3:19 (NIV)

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The fun after the climb

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