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I think if I had my way, I’d prefer to spend my life having mountain top experiences with God. You know, those times where life is good. Really good. Where God seems close. So close, in fact, that His very presence is felt in almost a tangible way.

I’ve had those times. Times where God was so near and so evident that believing He cared and was near were obvious. God showed up. He made His presence known to me. He opened my eyes, and for that matter the rest of my senses to make sure I was aware of Him.

I crave those times. I love those times. Life doesn’t work that way. Honestly, it can’t. The truth is that mountaintops are beautiful. The view is great. The experience is awesome. But they cannot be a place of permanent dwelling…at least not if my desire is to continue to grow.

Have you ever thought of this? You don’t really see many farms cultivated on mountaintops. Why? The conditions, while beautiful, just aren’t right. The soil is typically thin and rocky. The proper amount of water and other nutrients are lacking. It’s hard to maintain life on a mountaintop.

Shift your eyes to the valley. Down below. Where the beauty may not be as evident. Where life happens. It is here, in the valleys of our lives, in the times where we must continually work the land, that a harvest is produced.

I remember several decades ago riding along on a train in the middle of who knows where in Europe. I happened to have purchased a first class train ticket. There was in this particular car, myself and one other person. This man, it turns out, was an author. I have literally no clue what kind of books he writes, or what his name even is. I only remember very clearly something that he said that has stuck with me all these years. “It is in the extreme times of life that we grow the most.”

I was 19 years old. While my life had been impacted by a few “extreme times,” I could not have imagined the number of low valleys I would visit throughout the years to come. All I could see were the possibilities of the mountaintops.

Please hear me, I am not saying mountaintops are bad. We need them. We need to remind ourselves that they do exist. But honestly friend, as hard as they have been – I wouldn’t trade my valleys. It has been during my time in the valleys where I have grown closer to God and have learned more about who God is.

It is when life seems to unravel and fall apart that God has never seemed nearer. It is in my greatest times of need where I have never been more aware of God as my provider. It has been in my greatest times of loneliness that I have come to see God as my friend, and my great love. It has been in the darkness of rejection that I have felt God’s selection.  It has been in my times of fear and uncertainty that the hope of my forever has never been more clear. It has been in the times where I had the least that I felt rich in blessings that I might have otherwise missed.

It was in the valleys I grew. It is in the valleys I will continue to grow. They are not wasted experiences. They are places where pain and hurt blossom into something good.

God says it like this: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) “And I will restore to you the years that the locust have eaten…” (Joel 2:25)

“Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand His decisions and His ways! For who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give Him advice? And who has given Him so much that He needs to pay it back? For everything comes from Him and exists by His power and is intended for His glory. All glory to Him forever! Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36)

Every day of our lives have been mapped out. All the mountaintop days. All the time spent in the valleys. All of it. We may long for the one, but may we learn to see the beauty in both.

Blessings!