Mountain Illustration

As Josh and I talked last night, he gave a great illustration of what we are walking through right now.

He went on a midnight hike to Lassen Peak (a 10,457 ft. peak just east of Redding). As he was hiking with his friends, he said "This mountain is like my life right now- my finances, everything." He was saying the hike was so difficult that he was literally lifting his legs up by pulling on his jeans. Every time he got to a small plateau in the landscape, he would wonder how much further there was to go. Sometimes he didn't think he could make it any further. But a friend or stranger would say, "You are almost there". Even when there was a long way to go, everyone kept saying it wouldn't be much further. Finally, at 11:30pm, he made it to the peak. He said that the whole way up, he had seen 20-30 people turn around in defeat. "It is just too hard" they said. When he got to the top and could see out over the entire city, and the surrounding cities, he decided it was well worth the work. He was afraid at first to go all the way to the top, but once he was there, it was worth the fear, too. He said the whole way up he felt like this mountain was happening to him. Once he got to the top, he realized that HE just happened to that mountain!

This is the story of our life right now. Everyday it seems like our legs just can't move any further. It feels too hard. It feels too scary. We are literally begging for the light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone keeps saying, you guys can do it! You are almost there! But our circumstances say we have a lot further to go. We do not want to be the people who turn around halfway there and say, "Its just too hard". We want to be the ones at the top of the peak saying, "This was so worth it!" God has something beautiful in store for us. We have to cling to the possibility that all the trials and storms will be well worth the fight. We won't just let life happen to us. In the end, we will look back and say, "We have happened to our life!"