While my husband and I were in the midst of our long wait for God to provide a permanent job, waiting for Him to justify the dramatic step of faith that He had asked of us, discouragement and despair were constantly knocking at the door of my heart.
It became a daily battle.
When I cried out to God for help He responded, “Be Faithful“.
And I would think…ummm, God, You got anything else?
Nope.
Just “Be Faithful.”
Just “Be Faithful.”
Being faithful while my flesh screams at me to give up has been one of the toughest lessons I’ve had to learn along my journey.
A few years ago while we lived in the back-country of the Colorado Rockies Mike made encouraged me to climb a “14er”, a 14,000 ft mountain. And, no, I’m not really the mountain climbing type. 🙂
When you climb a mountain, you typically hike on a trail for most of it. But at the top you have to climb the boulder fields. They are exactly that; fields of giant unstable boulders. After all that you have the peak ascent. The last 1000 feet.
The whole mountain climbing experience was challenging for me…but the peak ascent was torturous. I knew the peak was there, I knew that there would be intense relief for my exhausted muscles, but I couldn’t really gauge how far I was from it. From my perspective I would think I was steps away, and yet half an hour later I was still climbing thinking, ‘Why am I not there yet?!?!’ For me, it was incredibly discouraging.
It was there, in the final ascent that I came the closest to giving up.
And so, in the same way, in my life at the times of trial and waiting, I feel discouraged and incredibly weary. Bone-weary.
But I know because of that day on the mountain that the peak is just beyond my view. And I have to be faithful by pressing on in faith.
Anybody else feeling like that? Are you facing a mountain that you never wanted to climb? Situations in your life that seem impossible to get past, impossible to conquer? Are you wondering if you even have what it takes?
You’ve been climbing this enormous ‘mountain’ so long, and the boulder fields are way more than you expected. You looked up and thought the peak was going to be yours hours ago…
months ago…
years ago.
And yet here you are, still stuck on the side of a mountain. You feel like you don’t have anymore strength to do this, {and you’re secretly wondering if you can call in some sort of ‘rescue helicopter’ to get you off this horrible mountain…} But you do have the strength to conquer this. That strength is Christ IN you!
Hang in there friend! His strength is made perfect in our weakness. He will get you there. He has not left you in your ‘boulder fields.’ And oh the miraculous joy of reaching the top and seeing in one swooping motion the whole world open up! Are you ready for it? It’s going to be breathtaking! Push through, asking our mountain guide, our Beloved Savior to fill you up with His strength as you climb on to what is sure to be a life-changing mountain top experience!
Be faithful by putting one step in front of the other. Sometimes that’s all that we can do; one step.
One step at a time until we make it to the peak.
.…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans 8:37
-Kallie
This is so encouraging, Kallie! Thanks for writing.