Mountains or Valleys?
My husband and I had a nice bike ride last night in the cool windy air around the farms and countryside near our home. At first glance, I would have thought the farm country to be rather flat, dull and uninteresting. But, as my out of shape worn out legs began to pump harder, I began to realize there were lots of little hills in this idyllic quiet country scene. Every time I felt the breeze in my hair and the wheels spun faster and faster with no effort on my part, I imagined how challenging this little hill would be upon my return trip. Each downhill meant another uphill sooner or later. My quads burned as I climbed the lackadaisical rolling hills panting, huffing and puffing all the way up.
There are times when I look at my faith walk and see it the same way I see our quiet countrside. Not much going on here, except a few manure piles and long stretches of uninteresting landscape far into the distance of my vision. And then, I feel shocked to find those almost imperceptible hills to be so incredibly challenging. Life looks pretty simple from far away, but when we get up close into the nitty gritty dailiness of it all, we see that there are lots of challenges we face continually.
I always thought that the Christian life was a little like a mountain climb. As I reached one plateau of spiritual growth, I expected to continue to climb upwards to the next high place with God. I hadn’t really anticipated that it was more like our Wisconsin rolling hills. The top of a hill means traveling down into the valley of tomorrow, the normalcy of everyday life and then looking ahead to the next hill to climb. Most of the time, they don’t look like big inclines, but every little hill is building up strength and muscles of faith so that the next challenge won’t be as difficult.
Maybe if I could fly up high and look down over the landscape of my life, I would see the winding road I’ve traveled and realize that it’s been more ups than downs and that each climb brought me to a higher place with God so that I could serve Him better when I descending back into the valleys of life. And on those days when it feels like I’m sailing with the wind flying through my hair, I can enjoy it even though I know it’s not meant to last forever. It’s all part of the path I’m on with hills and valleys, victories and weaknesses.
Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. Psalm 43:3
God is with me in the mountain top days and in the exhausting labor filled mountain climbing days too. He is guiding and leading and preparing the path ahead so I can move forward whether its up or down in faith.
Such truth written here, bless you.
wonderful, Heather. Reminds me of “Hinds Feet on High Places.”
Amen! So true. It’s in those valleys that I grow stronger…..
I was just offshore on an oil rig for work contemplating the same thoughts. The weather was making for some rough waves and I began to see the correlation to life. It was a great time to be alone with God in thought.
What a beautiful reminder that we are not alone in this journey. Yes, the little hills can be exhausting, but it is good to know that God is on the path with us.