climbing mountains

in life, i have both literally and figuratively climbed some huge mountains. i have experienced the physical pain of climbing a mountain... of the rough terrain, of scrapes and bruises. i have spent a week in the mountains backpacking. i have stood at the top of the continental divide and wept in awe of my god's creation. i have reached the peak of a mountain just after sunrise and seen more beautiful scenes than people put on postcards.

pictures don't even do justice to the beauty i've seen in the mountains. how awesome is our god that he made these sights? that there are mountains all over the world... they all look different- snow-covered mountains in a colorado winter, the deep luscious greens of mountains in hawaii, the calm fog on a morning in the blue ridge mountains- but they all strike a sense of awe within my heart.


i'm coming to enjoy literally climbing mountains more than figuratively doing it... i'm talking about those hard heart lessons of mountains. climbing the mountains and learning the hard lessons of life is tough work. tougher than getter over the scrapes, bruises and exhaustion of climbing a real mountain. climbing figurative mountains is just as worth it though. getting to those peaks of understanding and seeing god's plan is worth the work of processing and struggling to get there.

right now, i'm on the way up... fighting the wearing days, feeling the fatigue, thirsting for truth and a glimpse of the top. i feel like i've been climbing this mountain for so long. have i gotten lost? did i start out on the wrong trail? i momentarily lost the map that god wanted me to use. but i'm working my way backwards, retracing my steps, to figure out where i lost the right trail so i can get back on it. it hurts, its confusing, its frustrating.

i feel like david in psalm 13...
¹ How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

³ Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

⁴ my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

but i have hope! praise god for that! i know that when i make my way back to that trail leading me up and not astray, that i will make it. i will get to that peak. i will find the clarity. and i will rejoice.

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.

⁶ I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.

i will sing to the lord for he has been good to me my 22 years. and he continues to be good to me even when i lose my footing sometimes.