For Everyone Who Climbs

     These rocks of affliction seem to never leave the skyline.  They tower over us with their shadows cold and grey.  We awake each day with the impassioned thought to climb; climb, ever higher until we reach the top.  We begin but soon our bodies are pushed to the limit.  We look up.  The distance is just too far.  And we must look down again to begin the decent. 

     At the end of the day, after our attempted climb, we sit.  We sit and close our eyes and dream.  We set our hearts and minds on the hope of the shadow moving and the warmth of the sun pouring over us, thawing out our cold and weary souls.  But mountains do not move.

     And then, one day another climber comes along.  He doesn’t look too pretty.  The cuts and bruises tell of a similar tale; we know the marks well.  But he has a confidence about him, a steady look in the eye, and a patient hand.  He says, “Let’s ascend this rock face together.  I have stood at the base of a wall of rock such as this, and I have come down on the other side.  I am ready to climb.”  And in blind faith or desperate hope, we agree to go along.  The struggle is still there and the obstacles the same, but when we are too weak and our hope has waned, our fellow climber bids us to go on.  We push through the most difficult and dangerous parts of the climb and the summit comes closer. Our hands and feet find holds we did not see before.  We are helped and our weakened souls become stronger.  We begin to breathe the air of hope.

     As we pull our bodies up to the top, we stop to look for our friend.  The climb was long and the work was hard, but we were not alone.  We had someone there to help us up when we had fallen; we had someone there to show us that we did have strength, when we thought we had none.   With aching legs and muscles taught, we stand upon the precipice.  We close our eyes and feel the breeze.  In our hearts we hear a new refrain, “It was worth the pain.  It was worth all of the pain.”  

     And we stand there, in awe of what we have just ascended.  As we think back to where we have come from we feel a twinge of doubt, but we push the thoughts aside.  We are standing on the majestic point of a mountain and we feel a surge of pride roll over us like a wave.  But to take any credit for coming this far would be foolish.  We know we only kept going because someone had gone before us who knew the way.  We had a trailblazer to follow.  And now we see that we too know the way that others must take. 

     We make our plans to go down the rock.  We know we cannot stay here.  We know we need to go back to the lower, more level ground.  And as much as we want to rest in the valley for a little while, we know the next climb will come soon and we must be ready for it.  There are other climbers down below.  Our knowledge and our pain are precious now.  These experiences and things we have learned could become stagnant if they are hidden away and never shared with another.  We are a people of the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We even know the One who made the mountains.  We know that He has led us to these rocks that have been so full of trouble.  But it has been a trouble shared, not wasted.  It will be like precious oil that has been spilled out to heal another troubled soul.  This affliction turned to healing, He has called good. The rocks that had once afflicted us will be like smooth stones we can hold in our hands, to remember. We have stood on top of the massive rock that would have crushed us.  But we were not crushed. We have become more than conquerors.  ~Your Fellow Sojourner

Mt. Hood in Oregon