THAT'S NO MOUNTAIN FOR A CLIMBER

If you have ever been to the Smoky or Blue Ridge Mountains, you know how devastatingly beautiful they are. How certain views and landscapes seem to take the very breath from you. Each mountain top makes you think, "surly this view is the most beautiful one" and then you go down the valley and up another mountain only to find it more beautiful than the last.

Those mountains remind me of how God uses them as a comparison to the mountains in our personal lives, to draw us back time after time from the valleys that we so often live in.

Scientist tell us that those mountains were created out of the earth’s unrest and the disasters caused from earthquake’s. It is the same with with our lives. Mountain experiences will only come about after some type of disaster that has caused us to be in a valley for a time, and the mountain experience can only be as lovely to us because of our time spent in the low valley, where even at times the valley can be beautiful....yet, it is always the mountain top that we long to be on.

If you ask a mountain climber where his favorite part of the mountain is he will tell you that it is most definitely the top. If he is an experienced climber, you will find that he is a patient climber; because he has climbed enough mountains in his lifetime that he knows what awaits him at the peaks. The shear experience of the view is worth it all he might say! When I was on top of the Smoky mountains I could look down and see everything that was going on in some places. Odd how when your looking down on a situation you can see it from all angles. But when I was at the bottom or base of the mountain, I was very limited to what I was able to view.

I don't think that much thought had to go into naming those "Great Smokies". Because when you see them appearing in the windows of your car as you approach them....I can assure you that you do not say, "Oh, look the Smoky Valleys"! Yet, there are as many valleys as there are mountains there. It's just that the mountains are more grander, more striking and yet the mountains depend on the lowley valleys for the relief from the burden or weight of the winter's snow. If the valleys were not there to allow the waters to flow down and out through their rivers, the mountains would flood and we would not be able to see their great beauty.

We are prone to see the valleys around the mountains as the least place we would want to be, because in the valleys we feel enclosed and surrounded as if we can not see what’s coming….what’s over the next mountain. But on top of the mountain we can see everything for miles and miles and we like that freedom and control. Yet it was never in God’s plan for us to see the big picture, not as He sees it, but only trust that He does and that He can be trusted with what He sees and knows. Even Jesus told His disciples when one of them ask what heaven was like, that even if He told them, their minds were so tiny that they could not comprehend it... so, some things just must be left up to faith, trusting He knows best...because we may not be ablet to understand the big pitcure even if He tried to tell us!

Once there was a young woman who was trying to set a non-stop aviation record. During the course of her trip she ran into a thick fog that caused her to be unable to see anything. As she tried relentlessly to get someone on her radio, finally a voice came in and began to talk to her. The voice told her that while she might not be able to see clear through the fog, that he could see her clearly on his radar and could talk her through the fog if she would but listen to him and trust that while she might not be able to see him, he could see her and would see her to safe landing. Sure enough while her eyes did not want to trust, her heart had to. She gained a whole new perspective on radar that night and that with radar she could trust the voice that she heard in her cockpit and obey it. Had she argued with the man doubting him, she might not have ever lived to tell anyone!

You see God can see you threw the fog, the valley, the rut that you may be in, but you must be willing to allow Him to be your eyes and trust that even though you may not understand why this thing has come upon you; and that you can not understand the things that your eyes may be seeing at the time; and that no matter what the bumper stickers may say about God being your co-pilot, He will only be your pilot! GOD has never wanted to sit in the back seat of your life and be your co-pilot. He must be the pilot, the captain, master, and Lord of your everything!

While most of us want to live on the mountaintops, some have learned to recognize the beauty in the valley and the growth that comes from living there. You seldom will ever see farmers growing the crops on the sides of the mountains. Because it’s only in the valley that the crops can really grow to their fullest potential. In the valley on the flat ground that is where the best of the nutrients in the dirt lay; washed down the mountains with the wind and rain to find rest in the thick rich dirt of the valley.

Often times we are in such a hurry to get through the valley and get to the mountain top that we miss some very important facts that could be learned and might keep us from sliding back into the same valley again. Many times our valleys engulf us and keep us captive in our own fears and doubts because our focus is so out of order when we really just need to let Jesus finish what He’s working on in our lives and then we can look back and see the beauty of whatever it was that He was taking us through; and If it makes me more like Jesus, then that’s where I want to be, because I am no stranger to the valley’s... they seem like home to me.

In a song that I love called “That’s no mountain for a Climber", there is a part that says, "That's no mountain for a climber, because they know what awaits at the peaks"! Let me encourage you today to become a climber, don't you dare fear what it may take to get you to it, because as you go up it and around each valley you can be assured that the mountains with all it's beauty are there awaiting you at the peaks, you simply need to learn how to climb up to them! Then and only then will you be able to appreciate the valleys and see the beauty that the Lord sees as He is brushing off the old man in us to make us more like Him, and as we let go of what we feel safe with and let God.... trusting Him through those dark days in the valleys, they become much more bearable and fewer and far between.

God never offered victory without fighting, but that His help would always come in time. Just remember that when you’re standing in the valley of decision, and the adversary says give in, just hold on, because He will show up and He will take you through the fire again! Man I love that! Borrowed from the song that I mentioned!

Remember, don’t fight Him for your victory, because He has your best interest in mind and He plans on you being a winner!

I love you and Jesus loves you….I will never tire of saying that to folks!

Keep Climbing....no looking back...no looking back!

Bren