Aiming for the Mountaintop

Years ago I had the immense pleasure of spending some time in Tanzania, Africa. The landscape and the animals we encountered are magnificent scenes etched in my memory. While there I met a group of people who were preparing to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Some had already been and were ready to go again. They explained that the views from the top were amazing. I had no doubt of its beauty, but I also had no personal desire to make this trek. The sights I could see on the ground was already a splendid experience.

It’s alright not to take up mountain climbing in our physical worlds, but I encourage us all not to avoid the spiritual encounter of climbing upward. In our spiritual worlds, it’s not just reaching the summit that brings joy, but it’s also the climb that is of utmost benefit to us. A mountaineer feels pain in muscles as the climb steepens. The Christian feels pain of emotion as rocks of difficulty slows our pace, as life’s chasms to be crossed brings fear seemingly impossible to overcome. We may falter in our determination, grow weary of heart in our quest, feel as if we will crumble and fall should the path be any longer. However, with every step that takes us forward, we are becoming stronger in spirit. We are changing from a baby in Christ to a child of His who knows what it is to take the strength He offers. We feel pain but He gives joy that overcomes the adversity. We sense loss of inner peace, but with each step upward, the loss is quickly replaced with holy tranquility passing all human understanding. We feel weak and inferior with every slip along the path, but we grow in faith as God’s strength never fails to pull us up time and time again. As the journey goes on, and as we choose to go on, too, we sense a change taking place. What’s happening?

At last we reach the summit, and we see magnificently, not the views from the top, but our own face reflected in a pool of water, looking remarkably like the face of Jesus. We smile. We kneel. We thank Jesus for the journey, for every rock, steep path, and gorge to navigate, for it is in that moment we realize, taking the journey has changed us a little bit more into the family likeness of Jesus. We are more Christlike than we imagined we would become before the painful journey began. We praise Him. We breathe in the aroma of His peace. Then, we stand before Him, knowing with blessed assurance — we are ready for the next mountain to climb.

I look up to the mountains — does my help come from there? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2 NLT)