A little over 14,000 feet high.... we climbed mountains merely half as tall as Everest, talk about an accomplishment. If you disagree, just imagine your head being tightly squeezed, as you slowly lose oxygen and your breath becomes scarce. Sometimes there's nose bleeds, and every muscle in your body is aching, because it literally takes all of them to climb up the steep, incline. Your legs..well you no longer feel them, and you are treading up the dirt path as if you are learning to walk for the first time.
Of course, you don't start off like that. You start off with a bucket full of energy, confidence, and motivation. You bounce as you walk because hiking is your specialty, and you plan to keep things that way.
Unfortunately that lasts for about... 1/3 of the hike and you then gain a love hate relationship with the mountain. But no matter what, you still feel as if it is the greatest thing you have ever done.
With time, that bubble of glory slowly shrinks as you find yourself side by side with little children, couples with babies on their their backs, and best of all, men who look about 60-70 years of age who run up to the top and back without even breaking a sweat. A humbling experience.
Looking back, i'm able to break the climb into three stages of difficulty. The beginning, which of course is the easiest part. The dreadful middle where you start to believe your life is over. And the end, where you get that final doze of adrenaline because you are almost at the top, and you know getting there will be the biggest reward you've probably ever gotten.
Getting to the top twice already, i can confidently say that the reward was greater than i could ever imagine. So great, that i could probably never find the words to describe it. Because not only did you just accomplish one of the most difficult things you have ever done in your life, but you end up pretty much "on top of the world."
It was truly a life changing experience, and I never thought i could learn so much about God, and my relationship with Him through this new found hobby. I truly believe that He made it possible for us to make the first step to doing this, and i'm glad He did.
For many years now, I struggled with lack of faith and unstable patterns in my relationship with Him. I would constantly get frustrated with the idea that my walk with Him was so bumpy, so difficult. I would constantly fall, rise, but then fall again, often times not getting up for a long time. I would get so annoyed with myself, but sadly also with God. I didn't understand why it was so difficult for me to become the best person i could be for God, and stay that way. He showed me why, as i climbed that 14er.
When you first start your journey as a believer it seems easy. You start with a bucket full of energy, confidence, and motivation. You tell yourself, nothing will stop you, nothing will get in your way.
But as you keep going, the path gets steeper and harder, and you find yourself with the desire to turn back around. Still, you find strength to keep going because you know whats ahead, and you know its rewarding.
With time, the journey gets harder, you get tired, and your confidence starts to die down. You meet people of all ages and personalities who are better than you, and your hope of being a perfect Christian starts to shrink. You gain a love hate relationship with yourself, and you slowly lose hope. Somehow though you keep pushing yourself, overcoming the pain that comes as you get weaker and weaker in faith.
Just like in hiking, i could kind of break down my journey as a believer into three stages. The smooth and easy beginning; you're a newborn christian and your sight on God is so clear that you feel like you can overcome every obstacle. Then the middle, where you are at the urge of giving up, and no longer have the strength or determination to keep going, because you fall for the distractions of the world and your sight gets blurry. And the end, when you finally overcome the middle, and regain your strength because you are so close to getting your reward, you are tired, but you are more determined and stronger than ever.
I am still in the middle stage of my climb and will be for a while. And just like climbing a mountain i will go through many ups and downs before i get to the end, and i realize now, that its okay. Because during the tough parts of the climb i may fall down, and i may get hurt, but i will also be growing and getting stronger. When i get through to the easy parts i will find my burst of adrenaline to keep going. I have confidence that through all this Christ is always by my side, whispering words of encouragement. I also know now that God lets us fall once in a while, because, if climbing mountains was easy, getting to the top wouldn't be half as rewarding. When you really give it all you've got to get to the top, and you didn't give up, that's when you know the journey was really worth it. At that point it doesn't matter whether you fell, or were slower than others. All that matters is that you never gave up, you overcame the challenge, and you got to the top.
If life was easy, without bumps or inclines, then getting to heaven wouldn't be half as rewarding. So even if you feel you are in the most difficult part of your journey, don't give up on God, and trust Him that whatever He prepared for you in the end, no matter how hard it is to get there will be greatest thing you will ever experience. Because you chose the more difficult path, with the better view. And that view, will be more incredible than words could ever describe. More incredible than the view from a 14er and even Mt Everest.
