I have a friend who likes to mountain climb. She finds it exhilarating. She stands at the bottom and sees nothing but a challenge before her. The fact that it is physically strenuous is just a bonus for her. She says she does her best thinking when she’s climbing. I do my best thinking when I’m walking, on flat ground.
Before I gave my heart to the Lord, the smallest thing in my life could seem like a mountain, or a valley, more like a perpetual series of mountains and valleys; you can just imagine what the crises seemed like. There never seemed to be that nice stretch of in between – you know what I mean – the “I’m neither elated or deflated” feeling. I often longed for that somewhere-in-the-middle kind of life. Seeing something positive in a struggle was neither something I aspired to nor something that ever occurred. I always seemed to be in-transition.
More than once, I’ve heard people say, “God may take you over a mountain, around a mountain, or through the mountain, but whatever He chooses – He’ll be there with you.” Transition is an event – a journey – in which a transformation is meant to occur. We can drag our heels or look at the journey as a quest or challenge and meet it head on. Whatever that journey may be, whether over a mountain or through a valley, the peace of the Lord can be found; it’s there for the taking.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid,” John 14:27.
