Certain places have a feel to them. They can seem to create a space, a feeling, allow you to access certain aspects of reality more easily. The mountains are one of those places for me. They exude strength all on their own. Immovable, unshakeable, firm, sure, solid. It feels like you are closer to god in the mountains, like the rarified air allows for an easier connection to God’s own sureness and steadfastness.
I haven’t made it to the mountains in a while. Like over a year now. And if I’m honest, the mountaintop experiences in life have been few and far between lately. There are so many stories surrounding God with a mountain as a backdrop. Abraham climbs a mountain with his son prepared for the worst and meets a god who provides. Noah and his ark come to rest on a mountain where a new covenant is promised between god and humanity. Moses ascends a mountains and receives the Ten Commandments….twice. David seeks refuge in the mountains and writes psalms about the god who meets him there. A prophet Elijah is taken to a cave on a mountain and finds God there as a still, small voice. Numerous times Jesus seeks solitude and prayerful connection to his father in the mountains. He’s transfigured on a mountain; ascends to heaven on a mountaintop. You get the picture…there are lots of mountaintop experiences in the pages of the Bible. But what do you do, what do you feel, how do you proceed when it feels like there are no mountaintops for you to stand upon.
We all want those highs, those mountaintops where everything feels sure and firm and steady. Where the air is thin but it’s just easier to feel like you are in the presence of God, that he’s working in your life because you know it, you see it. Things are working for your good and you can stand on it. You have joy and it’s easier to rejoice because…well you’re on a mountaintop. It’s beautiful. The view is pristine, perspective abounds. I haven’t felt that in a while. And the reality is it’s just a bit harder to feel close to god when you aren’t standing on a mountain.
Which brings me to a story I came across today. It’s in Kings which is a collection of stories about the ancient kings of Israel. In chapter 20 of the first book, there’s a story about Ahab the king of Israel and a king of Syria who’d he apparently ticked off. Come the springtime, the Syrian king had decided it was time to come put Israel in their place. The Syrian king’s advisor came to him with a fascinating piece of advice. They said, “Their God is a god of the mountains. That’s why they overpowered us. But if we fight them in the plains, we will certainly overpower them.”
“Their god is a god of the mountains.” Boy has it felt like that recently. Since he’s a god of the mountains and I’ve not felt a mountain high, it’s been easy to feel like I’m distant from him. In the end it’s really just a accusation that tries to bring us down and defeat us. A look at where you are, God’s obviously not here because he doesn’t spend his time down here where all this stuff is falling apart and broken. And just like with these advisors to the Syrian king the thought is, if we can get them down there we can defeat them, because he’s a mountain god, not a god of the plains or a god of the valleys. It’s a tactic, a strategy.
But guess what I’ve found? That strategy, it’s a losing one. When you find yourself living anywhere other than a mountaintop….he’s the god of there too. He fights for us in the plains and in the valleys, not just on the mountains. It just not as easy to feel it, or to see it because the ground underneath us isn’t as sure, doesn’t feel quite as strong. But he fights for us there too.
So maybe you find yourself like me today. You look around and it doesn’t look or feel like there are any sure mountains in your future. We don’t have or need to chase a mountaintop. Our lives are not better when it all works out well. We can feel like our enemies are trying to drag us down to gain some advantage. But that’s just it…what would seem to be advantageous in the end just turns into one more place where we can connect to god. And that’s what life is all about. Not whether you finally arrive on the mountaintop destination of a put together life, or career, or family or anything we can accomplish. But on whether no matter where you find yourself you experience him in that place. Doesn’t mean that place magically becomes fun and good, but you find him there fighting alongside you, in your grief, in your sickness, in your turmoil, your drama and heartache and loss. It’s what Paul discovered and tells us in Roman’s 8…“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Life is just one constant attempt to separate ourselves from the love we can find in god. We falsely think we find that love and connect to it by figuring out and doing all the right things….that will allow us to ascend to his mountaintop. And look, sometimes we will have those highs, find that perspective, and experience that connection. But in the end what I’ve started to learn in this season is that when life thought it knocked you down and finally had you in the place it could take you out…He’s there walking with you and none of it can separate or change anything about his love and care for us. In that place the air is just as rare and we can find the perspective we need.
From The Whale's Belly 