Mountain Tops and Valleys

"There is still work to do, and that work is down the mountain." (Ackley, Curtis S. "March 8." The Upper Room Disciplines 2009. Nashville, TN: Upper Room, 2009. 79. Print.)

The summer I spent in Zambia was ended with a week long debriefing during which we worked through a book entitled "Miraculous Mountains to Victorious Valleys." The title has stuck with me since then and I've referred to it many times in conversations. While as Christians these "mountain top" experiences we have, the times when we are filled with joy, laughter, and/or in awe of what we are seeing and experiencing, are fantastic and encouraging, we do not stay on the mountain tops forever. Our life changes, we hit rough points, death, stress, sickness, world events, and so much more can leave us in a dark valley.

I've come to know that these dark valleys can be places that I see, experience, and trust God more fully then the mountain top places. One such experience would have been the sudden passing of my 16 year old brother Shaun when I was 8 years old. God was the one who understood how my 8 year old self was feeling and doing, and it was God who stayed each moment with me, cried with me, and understood me. God carried me through that dark valley. I came out stronger and more confident in God and over time as I have experienced many ups and downs my faith has grown and desire more to know God and to share God with those around me.

Today I was spending some time reading Mark 9: 2-10 a passage about Jesus' transfiguration on a mountaintop with 2 disciples (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark%209:2-10&version=NIV). As I was reading the coinciding devotional referenced above the author wrote about how the disciples must have wanted to stay on the mountain top to soak up, understand, and mark this event (the passage says they wanted to set up tents), but the event ends and they go back down the mountain. The author writes "There is still work to do, and that work is down the mountain," while the author was referencing the rest of Jesus' time on this earth, I cannot help but see how applicable this sentence is to our lives. While we desire to stay on the high mountaintop moments of life, Jesus knows that we have more growing to do and more of God to share with others so that all may experience the Mountain Tops with God, and grow  in the Victorious Valleys. So that together we can encourage one another, know God more, and journey the valleys and mountain tops together.