When Life is Peaks and Valleys

October 13, 2015

I heard once as a teenager what I thought would be the typical "there are mountains and valleys in life" talk. This time, though, it hit me differently. I heard the pastor saying that yes, there are mountains, and the views from the peaks are incredible. You see the world in a remarkable new way, you see the path ahead, you see glimpses of the future and the beauty to come. But the thing about the peaks is life isn't sustained there. The air is thin, the ground is dry and crumbly, the conditions are risky. We weren't made to live on the mountaintops. 

The valleys are lush, full of life. Yes, the paths are winding and treacherous and rocky at times, but there is incredible richness and abundance in the valleys. The mountaintops give us hope and perspective, but the valleys are where life happens, where roots sink down into fertile soil, where we flourish and then hibernate to prepare for when we will bloom again.

So often, we discount and devalue the season or scene we are in because we would rather be somewhere else. We might be stuck in a valley, stumbling along and struggling, desperate to just be on the mountaintop already. Or we might be on that ascent where the air is thin and fatigue sets in and we feel like giving up hope because the climb is too hard and we wonder if the destination will be worth all of this work.

It's overused and cliche, but isn't life really about the journey and not the destination? Why do we focus so much on what's ahead and miss what's beautiful about where we are?

What if we lived life every day like it is an enchanting dance, a wild adventure, a delightful exploration?

What would it look like to wake up each morning and fully engage with all that the day holds instead of letting hours pass us by because we are obsessing over things yet to be? What would it look like to be wholly present instead of half-hearted and distracted? What would it look like to savor each season instead of wishing for the next?

What would it look like to press in to the struggles of the valleys and press on to the victories of the mountaintops? What would it look like to find joy and find Jesus in all of it?