Mountaintops

Took some time off this holiday to reminisce and savour Switzerland in pictures... It's been more than 2 months since I last jetted off to this beautiful and tranquil country.

It served as a quaint respite and a much needed personal recovery trip. For one dinner, I had instant noodles, chocolates and a cuppa tea while basking in a real-life painting. Accompanying me was a book and bible. Despite the chatter amongst my neighbours (yes some Chinese tour group occupied the entire hotel and were exchanging conversations across me), I plugged in my ear piece and indulge in my quiet time with the Lord.

I missed it so much. Every single time I get so uptight about life, I wished we could rewind to those moments on the porch where I let it all go and took in breaths of positivity and peace.

What triggered me to dig out these visuals was this excerpt from a book I'm currently reading, and I love how it struck such a chord with me because of it's relevancy. It reminded me that life was much more than just relishing in magnificent mountaintops.

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"I watched a documentary about Mount Everest with my kids on Netflix one afternoon..... As I listened to the stories of training for months in advance, arriving and setting up camp at the base of the mountain, and finally the days it takes to climb to the submit, I was intrigued that very few stories being told actually had to do with the end result.

Life happens on the side of the mountain. In the film, the adventure began in the valley and happened on the mountainside. The summit of Everest was incredible, but interestingly enough, at the summit the air is so thin that it can't actually sustain life. No trees grow on top, and only some of the most fit, strongest lunged explorers in the world can stand there for any length of time.

The summit is a destination to reach, but it's not the spot to live.

The richness of the stores that unfolded, well, they happened along the way. So perhaps we're all really mountains people.

Mountains are often like that, aren't they? Whether the mountains are real or metaphorical, the best lessons are learned on the journey. It's as if God knew we needed the world around us to understand the ways we're called to live in pursuit of Him.

While the mountaintops may give us great views and perspective, it's the valleys that are most fertile and good for growth. The low points are the spaces that so often make way for the greatest fruit.

But we long for more.

We long to see the view from the mountaintop. We want the perspective gained when we stare back down the steep terrain we just scaled and see from whence we came. And while I'm sure we'd appreciate the view if a helicopter plopped us at the top of a great mountain, we'd never appreciate if the same way we would if we conquered the climb ourselves.

So we take our messes and our mountainsides and ask God to make them a beautiful journey. I believe that just as He makes the deadened trees of winter teem with newness of spring, He can do the same in our lives. He can take rocky bottom places and bring hope, and the broken can me made whole. He takes our doubts and speaks life to them. And somewhere in the midst of it all, instead of just standing in awe, looking at the beauty God creates, we begin to move in curiosity to inhabit that same kind of beauty ourselves." - Curious Faith by Logan Wolfram