That Mountain
Off in the distance, I see this mountain. It looks quite large. As I approach, it is a lot larger than I though it was. Initially, I thought I could make it up the mountain when I saw it from the distance, but as I approached closer, I realized that it was going to be near impossible to make it to the top of the mountain. I camped out at the bottom of the mountain for days. I debated if I should try to make the accent up the mountain. I finally decided to try to make my way up the mountain. I felt like I had the right gear and the amount of stamina it would take to make it up. I knew that it I would be hiking up the mountain for several weeks.
Day 3
I have been climbing for three days. The top is still so far away. I feel extremely tired and am thinking about turning back. I reach out to my friend Shelly. She reminds me how much I want to be on this mountain and that I should continue, because it is that mountain, the mountain everyone wants to climb. I continue on my way up.
Day 10
The top of the mountain still seems so far away. I am extremely tired and do not feel motivated to keep climbing up. I am emotionally drained to a point where I do not think I can keep going.
Day 11
The sun rises in the east, after my day yesterday I start my day off in prayer. I ask God to give me the strength to continue. I ask Him to help change my attitude and let me focus on Him instead of the situation that I am facing. I climbed almost the entire day. Night is approaching and I feel really good about the progress I have made. I look back at today and realize what has been different was my attitude towards the mission I have been on. Remind myself that this is what I need to do each and every day going forward.
Day 17
I can’t go on any more. This is not the experience I imagined. Can I please go back to that first day when I decided to climb up the mountain? I really just want to get off of this mountain. I am already so high up that I am not sure if I can. I feel very discouraged. I truly do not know what I should do. God feels very far away. Today, I am faced with the decision of if I should choose to continue to climb up the mountain or if I want to make the decent downwards. This is where I sit.
My mountain is a metaphor for an experience in my life that I am going through right now. My mountain has a purpose. I may not know what the purpose of this mountain is right at this moment, but God does. Only He can help me to the top of the mountain or help me back down the mountain to where I started. “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” He knows exactly how this is going to play out in my life. I need to trust Him and His plans for my life. I may be struggling right at this moment in time, but I know that it will not be forever. I remind myself every day to lean on Him. On Day 11 when I started off my day in prayer, it was one of the best days on my mountain so far. On that day, I changed my attitude and it really helped to refocus my attention back to Him.