Two Lessons Climbing a Mountain Taught Me About Faith
To kick off this year, I thought I would do something memorable. After all there are only so many turns-of-the-decade that we get to embrace in our lives. I tend to be spontaneous on holidays, and there was a nearby mountain with a short but steep climb calling to me out of the window of my holiday accommodation. My overreaching tenacity and idealization of the moment overtook my unathletic reality and I set off, dreaming of enjoying a God’s-eye view of the world on this special morning.
The path up the mountain started with a slight incline on the well-worn rocky ground trekked by thousands of climbing enthusiasts before me. ‘Not too bad so far,’ I thought. Sooner than anticipated, the path gradient increased — dramatically. Large boulders bubbled up from the earth and progress slowed as each step became a survival strategy.
At one point, both my hands and feet were glued to the ground as the trail developed into an almost vertical ascent. The view was breathtaking, but I clearly had no idea what I had signed up for and before long my limitations were screaming at me to turn around and go back to my comfortable lounge chair by the pool.
Just as I was clinging tentatively to the side of the mountain, depleted of breath, and wondered if I should go back, a woman passed by and with a kind smile quietly whispered, “Keep going; just ahead is a straight path that will make the climb easier.” As I rounded the next zag of the mountain trail fit only for goats, I was dumbstruck by what I saw. A limestone river of carefully laid natural stone wound its way amongst the trees like the yellow brick road leading to Oz.
I can’t even imagine how difficult it was to build that path – almost impossible. It was the reprieve I needed to finish my mission. A short time later, red faced and exhausted, but completely satisfied, I sat atop my mountain and relished a majestic 360-degree view of the world.It was remarkable.
I have often thought of that climb as 2020 has unfolded. When the days have been difficult in the past six months, I remind myself of two lessons I learned how to climb a mountain and that someone made a path for me to do so.
Climbing mountains is synonymous with the Christian journey. When we first come to salvation it feels easy at the start; love and hope propel us forward into the new adventure of faith. As we move forward, the incline increases and before long we end up facing boulders and sheer rock walls. Our faith starts to stretch. Out of breath and limitations looming, we wonder if we should have chosen this path – surely it was not meant to be this difficult? If you have ever felt this way, welcome to Christianity 101. Salvation is only the entry point to the trail we will undertake; to make it to the top of the mountain, we need something extra. That is called trust.
At the heart of faith is our ability to trust God with our every step. This is the hard bit and it is the heart bit, especially when we feel like we have made a mistake and ended up on a path that we should not have taken. Or when the path leads us somewhere we didn’t expect and it all feels harder than we ever thought it could.
The writer of Proverbs 3:5-6 offers us their wisdom for these moments, no matter what our climb looks like we can:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Firstly, to be able to successfully climb my mountain – despite the terrain I will face – I must trust God. This means that I am willing to submit to Him as Savior AND Lord. I am sure you think that is obvious. I have to tell you that at times in my life, I have needed reminding of this.
I know that I need a savior – don’t we all? We know we are sinners, imperfect and in need of redemption – I don’t even need Paul to remind me of it in Romans 3:23. Just spend 15 minutes with family and we all know that truth. What I have to keep reminding myself of, as I travel the path of life, is that I need to daily acknowledge Jesus as my Lord.
The writer of Proverbs says “trust in the Lord” – every day trust in Him as your Lord. Put your confidence in His sovereignty, His goodness, His faithfulness, His wisdom and everything else He is as the Alpha and Omega. Choosing to lean on my own understanding is like clinging to the side of that mountain and realizing I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
Daily we need to lay our human wisdom down for His, deferring our dominion for the one who holds all dominion. This is called surrender, and it is what trust in Jesus as Lord looks like:allowing Him to establish in us His kingdom each day. This has been one of my big lessons this year – how I climb my mountain matters.
Here is the wondrous part of allowing Him to be Lord of my climb. When we submit to the Lord’s directions, the writer of Proverbs promises us straight paths, ready-made for us. The author uses the Hebrew word ”yashar” which describes the preparation of pathways for visiting dignitaries and nobility. Paths would be cleared and fixed in preparation for important arrivals. John the Baptist used this concept as he spoke of preparing the way for the Lord as recalled by Luke in chapter 3:4-6.
How wonderful to think that when we trust in Jesus as our Lord, when we defer to His wisdom, faithfulness, goodness and love, He will yashar our path before us! If I had not deferred to my climbing friend’s wisdom and encouragement that day on the mountain, I would have missed the path that had been shared for me to lead me to the summit.
As this year continues to unfold, I hold these two lessons dear to my heart. Jesus is my Lord, whose wisdom will see me through the toughest trials of life’s trail if I trust Him. He loves me so much that He will yashar a path for me at just the right time. Yes, He is Lord and for that I am eternally grateful.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charissa Steffens is a teacher with a background in business and publishing. Passionate about strengthening the Body of Christ she holds a Master of Arts (Biblical Studies) and ministers through the spoken and written word. She writes for the love of it at her blog shematters.com.au. She serves in her home church Nexus in Brisbane, Australia. And is oh-so-happily married to David with whom she has two beautiful children, Elisha and Lucas.