Mountain Top Experiences
Hi Reader,
Welcome to Living Contentment Weekly. Here are your three contentment-related thoughts for today. Something for you to: read | do | pray
READ THIS
Many of us know what it’s like to have ‘mountain-top experiences’ with God. Some moment when we feel especially close to God, and we realise his closeness to us. Perhaps it’s a weekend away, a retreat/conference, or just a change of scenery. For me last week it was a literal mountain top. I helped lead a group of 12th grade kids from RVA to the summit of Mt Kenya. Just shy of 5,000m in the sky, it’s a pretty serious hike.
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We were led by a guide named Jeffery, who said he’s summited Mt Kenya over 900 times. Nine-hundred times! He wore old running shoes, carried a backpack with a broken waist strap, and from appearance was just an average thin, middle-aged guy. But he knows that mountain. Almost a thousand times he’s climbed it. Taking countless numbers of people, in good weather and bad, rainy season and snow, picture perfect climbs, and those that end in tragedy.
I realised a few things on that hike.
You follow the guy who knows where he’s going. There were many times when it looked like the path Jefery was taking was not the fastest, easiest, or safest route. But….I’ve never been there before, and he knows the trail like the back of his hand. What may look quick, safe, easy from one side – may not be. You have to follow the guide.
Some things are harder than they look. At 5000m above sea level, the air is pretty thin and the oxygen suspiciously absent. When the guide says take a break here, but it doesn’t look like it’s needed – you still listen.
My job was not to know where to go, or to plan the route. My job was to follow and help others to follow. If I forget my role, I not only don’t do it well, but I can get in the way of others.
DO THIS
The application of these mountain-guide lessons feels almost too easy. But I encourage you to think about these things:
Where in your life right now are you tempted to jump ahead and figure things out on your own?
What things seem easy (or hard) and may not be what you think they are? When do you think your job is to figure out your life direction – rather than following Christ?
These questions are not trivial. Think about them and what they mean to you right now, wherever you are in your walk with God at this point.
PRAY THIS
God of all creation,
you formed the mountains with only your words,
mountains so great and majestic they strike us with awe.
Yet you care for each of us, our days, hours, moments.
Give us faith to trust you with the direction of our lifes.
Give me the ability to follow you even when it looks hard.
Give me strength to follow when I don’t understand.
Thank you for being the perfect guide through this life.
Even when I don’t know exactly where you’re going,
Give me faith to follow you.
Amen
Talk to you next Thursday!
~George
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