Mountaintop vs. Valley

"Just a few more steps..." you tell yourself between each breath. With 40 pounds on your back and blisters that have popped and are now screeching for air you begin to wonder if the summit is really all it's cracked up to be. 

If any of you have ever experience climbing up the side of the mountain with some doubt that you will never make it, you know the reward in the end. The Mountaintop! Once you have reached the glorious summit all your doubts are washed away. You have a sense of accomplishment, relief, thankfulness, and joy all wrapped up in one deep breath. Mountaintop experiences are one of my favorite feelings that I have ever had. You can see God's creation from so many different angles. You begin to review your climb and remember the laughter and the struggle.

Today I read a note from Oswald Chambers about this very experience. In Mark 9:2, Jesus brings his disciples up the mountain to be alone with him. While they were with him Jesus decided to transfigure himself. Wow, what an amazing experience! Can you imagine that!? I can only imagine what a great honor that would be for Jesus to be with the disciples like that. I think that experience would trump all others. But then they leave the mountaintop and go down into the valley again where they find a demon possessed boy. Chambers mentions the significance of only being on the mountaintop for a moment and then going right back into the valley where there are hard things to deal with, confusing things, personal struggles, etc. We often go to the mountaintop expecting Jesus to teach us something but instead He transfigures himself. In some ways the disciples were probably confused by this: "why isn't he teaching us something new?".
Chambers says this:
"The mountaintop is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something."  

Chambers wants us to realize that we are always wanting the answer asking: "What's the use of this experience?" but this is a dangerous trap according to Chambers. He says that we can never measure spiritual matters in this way. We need to trust God that instead of teaching us things on the mountaintop, He is preparing our character and heart for what's to come in the valley. The valley is our destiny while on earth not the mountaintop. God will bring us to the mountaintop for inspiration and encouragement only to tell us to go back down. Seems kind of backwards but also so right.

As Kevin and I struggle in the valley with not having jobs and wondering when things will be back to normal... we are beginning to question what the true norm really is. What is "normal" to God? What is His will for us? In the same way Kevin and I have had some mountaintop experiences recently where the Lord uplifted and encouraged and then asked us to go back down the mountain into the valley again. It is SO hard to be present. I find myself continually trying to climb back up the mountain side only to keep slipping and getting nowhere because God knows it's not time yet. I frustrate myself. If only we could truly understand His ways. But like Chambers said, we cannot measure spiritual matters with human logic.

Today my Lord has blessed me with Oswald's words of wisdom. Hopefully they have spoken to you as well.

Blessings.