Getting to the Mountaintops

  

(Thank you Owen for this picture you took that makes me think you were somewhere very high and dangerous)

"Everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something and has lost something"

                                             H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

It's that time of year. There is a large, empty void in my life where my Christmas tree used to be. The magic of lights as I turn onto different streets are now filled with darkness. The wrapping paper is pushed into the back of the closet. "O Holy Night" won't play for another year (or possibly July if I start to miss it too much). The holidays are over.

Some people find it a relief, but this for me, means the beginning of the most boring months of the calendar year. Not a whole lot to look forward to until the cherry blossoms poke their heads out in Spring...but then again, the pollen nearly kills me, so it's kinda a trade off (yea, call me glass half empty).

And for some reason, it's during these months that the bad things always seem to happen, or are at least magnified. Lately, all around me I've been noticing pain. It's been a hard week in the blog world. A lot of the blogs I stalk have given some sort of news that has left me weeping at my computer like a blubbering idiot. Oprah doesn't help things either. Nor does the news. And even the friends that I  see everyday are experiencing pain through all sorts of situations. Promises broken. Trust misused. Loss of loved ones.

I feel helpless.Why do people have to go through pain? Why do we have to feel discomfort, hurt, loneliness, betrayal? 

And it doesn't escape anyone. I mean. I get that we all love something. I love that we all love something. But why does fear and loss also reside in us? Why are these inherent traits that we carry around with us just as we carry around our laughs and smiles?

One of the most testing trials of pain in my life was when my cousin died in a motorcycle accident. His death shaped the rest of my college years, who I was, how I perceived God, who I am now and how I view God today. There is purpose in pain. It is often impossible to see when entering or going through it. But hindsight is 20/20. I learned so much about so much when i felt like it wasn't fair to ever laugh again. When I forgot the pattern of normal breathing. When i thought my tear ducts would eventually run dry. When i wrestled through sleepless nights and shook my fist at the King of Kings. I writhed in discomfort and pain and I stayed there until I learned healing, and grace, and mercy, and trust. 

If I never heard music I hated, then how would I know the kind that taps my heart to life? If I never knew darkness, I wouldn't know the stars were twinkling. If I never ate tofu, I wouldn't know how truly mouth-watering and satisfying pizza is.

Third Day's song, Mountain of God, says:

Even though the journey's long
And I know the road is hard
Well, the One who's gone before me
He will help me carry on
After all that I've been through
Now I realize the truth
That I must go through the valley
To stand upon the mountain of God

It is part of the design. How can we know true joy and happiness, if we don't know true pain and sorrow? We MUST trudge through the valleys to stand on the mountaintops.  

Here is the good news. We don't have to do it alone. Our God is not constrained by time. The thought that He is already in tomorrow is beyond my wildest comprehension. But He's gone before us. He is in tomorrow because He is not held by the days that we have created in boxes on a calendar. So if He is in our tomorrows, He is waiting to embrace us. In our joy. Or in our pain. 

He is already there. Ready to defend us. Ready to fight for us. Ready for us to just collapse into His arms.

So He can give us purpose. 

So He can carry us through valleys. 

And so He can proudly stand with us on the mountaintops,

In this beautiful war, 

called life.